Harry's Game
by Black Logician
Summary: A take on rationalist Harry.
1. Consequences

_Now since this is a spinoff of a spinoff, I guess to get the background, you have three options as you start reading: _

_Long intro__: You can just start with 'Harry Potter and Methods of Rationality'. It is a rather intelligent work. This spinoff picks up around chapter 65/67 of that fanfiction. You can find the link in favorite story section. Or else, you can directly begin by reading the short intro below…_

_Short intro__: Just know that Harry in this version was brought up by a professor of Oxford. Thus Harry's approach to the world around him is very scientific. _

_Also Professor Quirell in that version is a very capable Evil Genius and sort of a mentor for Harry. Quirell has started organizing mock army wars as a way to teach magic and strategy for his subject Defence against dark art. _

_In the latest war, Harry's army has just decimated the armies of his friends and fellow generals Draco and Hermione. _

_Shortest intro__: Just keep reading and fill in the gaps as you go. _

**Chapter 1: Consequences**

"A fair war? " professor Quirell smirked. " You want a fair war? Do you think DADA stands for Defense against Dumb-assitude?" Quirell looked at the three of them as if he really expected an answer.

" I am afraid.." Quirell continued as he met silence in response"..that Dragon and Sunshine won't be given a bailout. You had a known enemy and plenty of time to prepare yet you failed to provide any match or the semblance thereof. In real life this would have either meant death, or subjugation. Of course you will get one of them now.

Both your armies would be disbanded after one week and will be allocated to senior armies.

We will then move forward to inter-year-wars."

Hermione and Draco were trying their best not to appear furious. Harry who stood slightly aside didn't seem to be furious at all. But then his army wasn't being threatened.

" But professor" Hermione interjected " Inter year battle won't be useful for us. We would all become busy trying to catch up on the magical knowledge that our seniors have learned over years, to have any time to devote to strategy. "

"Miss Gragner." Quirell replied " But you overestimate them. How much of a magical difference do you think there is?

Hogwarts has boasted of a pedigree of stunningly incompetent professors teaching DADA. So while in your case, I had to begin from zero, in case of your seniors the baseline was negative.

But that's not the only thing holding them back. They also have their quidditch matches. None of you are in quidditch teams, but senior army generals almost uniformly are.

So they do their best to pay equal attention to a game and a war.

No miss Gragner. You won't have much difficulty in trying to match up with majority of your seniors. You will even have time to think of your wonderful strategies.

But you won't get to use them.

It's a law of nature. An incompetent leader will have to punish any sign of competence. "

"But why are you doing this professor?" Draco asked " How do we get to improve our defense skill by this?"

"You will learn the price of failure Draco. And whether or not you could afford it." Quirell said. " Harry had to learn it artificially. In the class where he had to ask for forgiveness and mercy from the fifth year students instead of fighting back.

But being pushed around by some oversized morons is not nearly as bad as being ordered around by them. You think Harry had a hard time back in that class? Wait till you find out a superior sending you to certain death. Try arguing against him. Use reason. Tell them a better strategy. See what happens. "

"So this is our punishment then?" Draco asked, his anger now visible in a simmer.

"This is your introduction to a more real war. Where irrelevant things such as age can matter the most. Where white hair can give you the crown even if you are insane. Where people would jump to their deaths as long as they are doing it together and are being assured by incompetent leaders that everything is under control and the way it is supposed to be." Quirell was slowly getting angry too. He realised it and stopped. The sudden expression change was almost like his body language had made a grammatical error.

"Now if you have no more questions, you can go now. It will be the duty of the generals to inform their armies about next week's allocation." Quirell concluded. "All the best for the Inter-Year-Wars."


	2. Life Eater

Nobody spoke a word till they reached the general headquarters of the Chaos army.

"So," Draco broke the silence "How do we fight back?" He looked at Hermione and Harry who was still not displaying any emotions. Draco wondered for a while why Harry should be involved at all. The situation was of advantage to him, why would he want to alter that.

"Harry" Hermione said " Calm down."

Draco turned to look Hermione with incredulity. Calm down? Why was she asking Harry to calm down?

It was only when Harry spoke that Draco understood how mistaken he was. Harry's silence wasn't that of indifference. It was a silence of restrain.

Draco noted that he has missed out on something. He thus listened to Harry keenly.

" If Prof. Quirrel wants to make it unfair, then let's make sure that unfairness does in deed happen. Let's also make sure that it is our unfairness. " Harry calmly said " Prof. mentioned that there will be Inter-Year-Wars and that there would be absorption of armies.

We will welcome the Inter Year Wars. But rather than being absorbed, we would be the one absorbing."

"What? But.." Draco halted as he couldn't find the correct objection amongst the many that came to the mind and where each was most obvious than the previous.

"We will need some data. Draco, can you get information on senior armies by tomorrow? And Hermione, you and I will need to do a bit of research."

"On what?" Hermione suspiciously asked.

" Quidditch" Harry said and smiled. Draco noted that Harry didn't need to laugh any longer to appear evil.

Next day:

" Professor Quirell was right." Draco said as he began his report " Almost all the army generals of senior years are also involved in Quidditch. Roger Davies, Marcus Flint, Oliver Wood and Cedric Diggory are the most prominent names who are not only heading their Quidditch teams but are also the army generals. Tradition of Quidditch makes it a much more popular event and thus these generals do tend to ignore their wars. This casual attitude also spills over to most of the other soldiers under them.

There tactics of wars are shoddy and amateurish. If Quirell wants to make them have a decent war, he will have to dictate them the strategy. For a while, I almost thought that he is doing this to improve the standards of the senior army.

But then..

Here take a look at this."

Draco opened a thick black book that he had been carrying. He opened it to reveal a parchment.

The parchment display kept on moving, as if it were a slide show.

On it visible were pictures of various soldiers of the three first year armies.

In one corner, Harry spotted Neville, giving a mute shout in an endless loop, in another corner Zabini was shooting himself with his wand, there were Padma and Parvati Patil aiming their wands at each other through their adjacent pictures. Below , there was written 'Tap your wand at the picture to see more details."

Harry was intrigued. He found himself looking for the pictures of three of them. He found Draco and Hermione first. Draco's picture was placed on top of Hermione's picture. Draco was lying flat against a rooftop holding out his hand. Below Hermione was saying something.

Harry couldn't hear those words from the picture, but he knew them by heart. He had replayed the whole scene too many times in his head.

And then the hand let her go. And then she was falling. And then she was there back again saying same words that now couldn't be heard. And then she was falling again.

He quickly took a look at Hermione who was watching the endless fall too. Harry was worried what would the situation lead to.

Thankfully Draco interrupted.

" The senior year armies were informed of the absorption much before we were informed. They have already been gathering information on this page.

They are in fact currently rating us. Through some sort of opinion polls or something.

Here, see for yourself.." He tapped the wand on a picture full of red hair. Ron's chart became visible.

" Intelligence: 1/5

Magical power: 1/5

Loyalty: 3.5/5

Team work: 3/5

Other skills: 1/5"

"This is ridiculous." Hermione suddenly declared. Then after a moment, as if to balance the sudden outburst, she asked " But what is it?"

"Its FB. Floo Book." Draco said with some visible pride. "You can take this parchment in any of the books and appear to be busy studying in class. Meanwhile you can chat with everyone who is checking it out too. Or leave messages to them. Play hangman and stuff. Update others on what you are up to.

You can also 'like' the messages of others. Or 'curse' them through it. A fifth year couple once broke up on FB, and the girl cursed him so that everybody who had anything bad to say about him, found their thoughts appearing in the comments section. The boy in turn cursed her so that each time she opened this page, her actual weight became her status message.

It's great fun. Everybody is hooked to it."

Harry looked at it. "The detail of wars here is impressive. Does it even have details of previous quidditch matches?"

"It has the exact recordings. Plenty of people update it through their omnioculars." He then proceeded to show Harry previous victory of Slytherin over Gryffindor from various point of vantages. With different taps of wands, zoom, vantage control and pace control were also possible.

" How come we've never heard of it?" Hermione asked.

" It's a recent invention, and is currently used mostly amongst seniors. One has to be invited to join. So it hasn't reached first years. I naturally got myself invited, being a Malfoy makes it easy. From here, getting data of Army generals and other soldiers was very easy." Draco concluded.

" Who has invented this?" Harry asked.

" Nobody knows. Its some guy with a profile 'Life-eater'. He fashions himself to be .. I am forgetting the name… something like 'berg', zonkoberg, zukeberg something like that."

"Gutenberg, by any chance?" Harry jested.

" Yes. That's it. Gutenberg. "Gutenberg of Gossip". That's what he calls himself."

"If that's all you know about him.." Hermione said looking rather put off. " then how do you know that this inventor is a 'he'?"

"Ok, stop." Harry interjected. He didn't want to go into SPHEW business right now. " This thing is distracting us."

"Yeah." Draco agreed. "There are some powerful enchantments on it to do just that."

"Let's get back to the topic." Harry decidedly said, shutting the book with some effort. " I think we now have all the pieces of our plot. This Sunday we begin our attack."


	3. Combat Commentators Part I

" Hello everyone. Welcome to the unofficial final of the year. " Lee's cheerful voice announced to an energetic Sunday morning crowd of the stadium.

"Both Ravenclaw and Slytherin are ruling the point charts without any contention.

Ravenclaw comes to this match boasting of its Star Chaser Captain Davies, who has made a fine art of beating all the defenses of the opposite team. In previous match with Hufflepuff, he forced their chasers too to play the defense positions yet there was no stopping him or his goal rate.

Slytherin captain Flint has to take that almost as a personal insult. Since he and his entire 'chaser' team are coming to this match with a score of 0 against Gryffindor in previous match. In fact with Weasley Brothers' general mayhem and with Super Keeper Wood's near perfect defense, the only reason that Gryffindor isn't clean sweeping the opposition is because they can't find a seeker decent enough to catch a snitch if it were the size of quaffle.

But we can stop thinking about that right now. Ravenclaw and Slytherin can start making all the noise for their teams.

And Hufflepuff and Gryffindors can cheer up as well since today is the only game day of the season when their team won't loose.

All those things aside get ready folks. Both teams are here and so is Madam Hooch. The show is about to begin."

A snitch fluttered and disappeared. 14 players flew in a blur of speed and a roar of cheers made the stadium shiver with anticipation. Everybody's eyes were on the sky.

Almost.

If somebody would have paid notice, they might have seen students do something they do only during class time; whisper. But nobody was noticing.

Lee continued " And yes. The game has immediately turned to a personal grudge match between the two captains. Marcus flint is in the possession of the quaffle and flying away towards the goalpost.

Breathing down his broomstick is Davies. Flint is now trying to shake him off, and he looses Davies. He has a clear angle at the goals now, defense is coming now to intercept, but they won't be in time. He is going to score.

Woah. Defended.

Davies shows unbelievable reflexes and steals the quaffle from midflight flying backwards.

Now he is speeding full speed towards the goal post on the other end.

He dodges the bludgers, another chaser homes in on him. And Davies passes.

He passes to Andrew who has a clear shot.

And he Scores!"

Lee's voice boomed loud in the stadium. A bit too loud.

Usually his voice was drowned in the cheers that immediately followed. Yet, the cheers this time were dispersed.

The near silence that followed the goal was most audible. Even the players stopped for a second in mid air. If snitch would have stopped and hovered at one spot at that time, both the seekers would have missed it.

Lee looked around to his Head of the House who was always there, ready to snatch away the mike the moment it was necessary. (And with Lee, it often was)

McGonagall too could sense it. There was something strange going on. She walked over to some students nearby who seemed to be more interested in a book rather than the game. She had often chided her students for playing games in the class when they should have been reading. It seemed slightly insane to her as she now asked the students to hand over the book and pay more attention to the game.

But she did confiscate it and then as she couldn't help but be curious, she opened the book.


	4. Combat Commentators Part II

"Minerva." Dumbledore said " How nice to see you join us here for a change. Does this mean that you are finally going to let Mr. Jordan speak his mind out? It shall be a fine game indeed then".

"It wouldn't be a problem headmaster, nobody is listening to him right now." Minerva replied "They are all reading this."

Dumbledore adjusted his half moon spectacles and started reading the book with a smile that kept on getting more delighted.

"Fascinating." Dumbledore said.

"The entire game is being predicted." McGonagall said " Every goal that is happening , is happening on these pages first.

I have been checking it and its almost unbelievably accurate.

The two commentators there, Takamura and Eiji…"

McGonagall stopped because Dumbledore suddenly chuckled, and then she continued " .. they have been arguing amongst themselves about the strategy or the lack of it that the two teams have.

Not only have they been providing better strategies, they are predicting the results accurately.

When Slytherin scored, they had said that the next goal would be by Slytherin about a full minute before it happened.

I thought earlier that it might be just good understanding of the game. But this is ridiculous. How could anyone do this?"

"Minerva" A lazy drawl of Snape addressed her " If I may ask, where is Harry Potter?"

"What?" McGonagall was surprised " What does he has to do with it?"

"Come on Minerva." Snape replied. " Haven't you learned yet.

Whenever something weird happens, its best to begin with the question 'Where is Harry Potter?' "

"This is absurd." McGonagall was furious " How could you say that Severus? If this has been your 'best' way then also ask yourself how many times we have been wrong about Harry. How many times have we suspected him wrongly?

We are supposed to begin with 'presumed innocent' not 'presumed guilty'.

I don't know about 'Best', but that is the most Fair way." McGonagall concluded her fury and then turned to Dumbledore " And what are you chuckling for Albus? Don't tell me you too suspect Harry"

"Minerva." Dumbledore said smiling "Suspicion is not equal to judgment.

But don't worry, its not your ignorance but Harry's plot armour that prevents you from seeing this.'

McGonagall didn't know how to reply to that. So she became more furious. This was a policy matter. When in doubt, be furious.

Snape however seemed rather interested.

"Very intriguing, Headmaster" Snape said " 'And if I may ask, how does one see a plot armor?"

"By making sure that it is your plot." Dumbledore cheerfully replied.

Snape looked thoughtful at that and went back to watching the game, his mind clearly not interested in it any longer though.

Dumbledore turned to offended McGonagall.

"Now come on Minerva, no serious offense seems to have been done. It just seems that Mr. Takamura and Mr. Eiji here apparently understand the game well. Let's sit and enjoy the three commentaries that are on offer" Dumbledore said.

At his mike, Lee remained unaware of the other two commentators and blissfully continued to report the match.

" The quaffle is in John's possession." Lee said "He is moving towards Slytherin goal post. This is going to be a close one."

To those who were reading the commentary on the floo book, that was quite not the case. Like a fast flowing stream, Takamura and Eiji were firing their thoughts furiously and texturally.

Takamura: Close one?

Eiji: Of course not. Slytherin is going to easily defend.

Takamura: Yeah, they will.

Eiji: Because Slytherin Keeper Derrick is damn good.

Takamura: And fat.

Eiji: Sorry?

Takamura: He is fat, or bulky, if one wants to be polite. That is the reason why he is proving to be a better keeper. And will stop the goal.

"And he has stopped it." Lee announced with controlled excitement. There was once again little response from the crowd. What was wrong with people today?

Eiji: What is wrong with you?

Ok, so Derrick did stop the goal. But you are saying he could do it because he was fat?

Takamura: Of course. Look at him right now. You see his position?

(People reading the quidditch floo book page saw a picture of Slytherin Keeper pop next to the commentary)

Eiji: Perfectly poised to move in either direction. He is being text book perfect.

Takamura: Right. And check out his position just before the goal.

Eiji: I don't see any… wait a minute, he is a little down.

A bit lower than the hoop in this one rather than in front of it.

Takamura: Yes, because he is fat his broom keeps on sinking a little bit all the time. Its like a little boy who is wearing pants that are slightly big for him. It keeps on sliding down, and then at one point he pulls it up.

Ditto for Derrick. Due to his weight, the broom keeps on sinking and after sometime, particularly after a goal attempt, he pulls himself up back in front of the loops.

Eiji: Hmm. That seems to be true. But what does that have to do with his keeping abilities.

Takamura: Its simple. Usually a keeper sees a chaser attack while flying on the same level. Or in other words they are eye to eye.

How much of chaser's broom do you think can a keeper see then? Just the front end. Like a big dot, a little bit bigger than snitch.

Eiji: But as the saying goes, war isn't the time to admire enemy's horses. Why would the keeper want to see a Chaser's broom?

Takamura: Just a minute. Flint is going to score a goal in few moments.

"And Flint scores." Lee shouted in next few seconds. Again few people cheered. Lee swore under his breath and the whisper carried throughout the stadium.

Good thing was no one was listening. Lee could have declared Snape to be a hybrid specie whose proud father and mother were a Bulgarian Vampire and a Hungarian Horntail respectively, and still gotten away without even a detention.

Because almost everybody by now, was looking at the commentary on Floo Book.

Eiji: Ya ya. Of course Flint scored. Now don't avoid the question. Why would the keeper want to see a chaser's broom?

Takamura: To detect feints.

When a keeper is at level with the chaser, its hard to see where a broom is turning. All one sees is a dot which then expands slightly when the broom turned. One can't really notice what turn is going to be made, before it is made.

Its like being in Flatland.

Eiji: Fatland? Will you stop your jibes at Slytherin keeper?

Takamura. No, no. Not Fatland but Flatland. How do you mishear a written word? But anyway, since the Slytherin Keeper is at slightly lower level than that of the attacking chaser, so he doesn't see broom as a point but rather in its full length from below.

Can you imagine it, he sees the entire length of the broom. Its easier to see the twist and turn that way before they happen.

So he gets about, let's say, ten percent more time to make a save. Making him about that much more successful.

In fact he can get more time and be more successful.

He just needs to get fatter. "

Bursts of laughter erupted from the stadium. " And the quaffle is.." Lee stopped his commentary in the mid sentence.

"We are laughing now?" Lee's voice suddenly became dry " Why are we laughing? Oh I see it. One chaser passing the quaffle to another is so funny. Why didn't I notice it before." There was a pause.

"You MORONS!" Lee's dry voice snapped " Did your mothers confound your ugly mugs when you were born in a premature delivery?"

McGonagall rose from her seat " Excuse me. It was a terrible idea to leave Mr. Jordan alone with the mike" Before going, she gave a quick disapproving glance to chuckling Dumbledore who didn't seem as if he had heard her at all.

" If you want to laugh.. " Lee had spotted McGonagall approaching him and was now departing with the mike "..wait till somebody effing tells a joke."

The Floo Book commentary didn't stop though.

Eiji: Oh dear, our official commentator seems to have taken an early leave. Takamura: Ah, I guess it can't be helped then. We will have to take over the official commentary as well.

Dumbledore's laughter suddenly ceased.

Eiji: Yeah, I guess the players might be able to use a tip or two.

Takamura: So at the count of zero we will take over the commentary. Let's tell the players what they should do. What they would do.

So, yeah. At the count of zero.

Three.

Dumbledore disappeared.

Two.

Hermione set aside her omnioculars after watching Dumbledore disappear from the grounds and idly wondered if the headmaster had ever read 'Hogwarts: A History'.

One

Lee's voice disappeared from the stadium. Prof. McGonagall stopped chasing him. A faint crackle from the mike made the stadium air alive again and ...

Zero

"Hello from Takamura" Harry's voice boomed in the stadium instead of Lee's.

"And Goodbye from Kamogawa" Dumbledore's unmistakable voice joined in and then there was no more commentary.


	5. Divination Part I

" How could you?" McGonagall asked Harry who was once again in her office. Draco, or Eiji, was being questioned by Severus Snape separately.

"By a combo of Muffliato and Ventriliquo" Harry replied.

"What?" McGonagall's confusion was instinctive.

"That's how I overtook the commentary from Lee. I thought you would be happy that I stopped him" Harry tried to sound equally confused.

"I don't care about that. How did you predict the results?" McGonagall said.

"Not that again." Harry sighed. "You suspect that I have used the Time Turner, don't you? This is getting to be repetitive"

"Haven't you? How else could you have predicted every single point?" McGonagall asked.

There was silence.

"Harry?" McGonagall asked again.

" Is it too far fetched to believe that somebody could have made those predictions? Even after reading all the reasons I provided, all the strategic outcomes I outlined?" Harry asked.

" It is a bit far fetched that a first year student who has never played the game before, never even bothered to see a single match until today would suddenly be able to predict the score. It was like you had learned divination."

"Definition is the true divination." Harry said.

McGonagall stopped. She stopped because she understood. Some part of her brain wasn't going to be the same again.

"The great muggle economist Adam Smith talked about mankind when they had not invented compass.

Imagine the people living near the sea shore, seeing that great wide length in front of themselves and not being able to go beyond the horizon of their eyesight. Forever afraid of what may be beyond, afraid of falling off the edge of the flat world they 'knew' themselves to be living in.

But when the definition of the world was changed for better, painstakingly, bit by bit, voyage by voyage, we found out the sphere and filled in the blanks . It became simple to see far beyond what just eyes could.

By defining their world, they were able to divine their position in it. "

"But Mr. Potter" McGonagall said " I may not know much about definition, but thanks to a dear colleague of mine, I do know things about divination.

A map of the world is still not the world.

You may be able to say it roughly where you would land if you follow a particular path. But there is a limit to that possibility.

Divination is a rather imprecise branch of magic. The best seers may not have been able to predict the match point by point as you did.

So while your definition, or should I say your 'map drawing' may be excellent, I still do not believe that you predicted every single point of the game with just reasoning. "

"So you are going to check me for time turner use, even if you don't have any proof. Just like the last time when you didn't find anything?"

"You do have a record of breaking rules Harry"

"What rule have I broken in this incident?"

"Well, the rules you break are usually the ones that nobody has written as yet. I guess that's because there aren't many people who imagine up the offenses that you do."

"But if its not written, then how does it become a rule?"

"Ok, fine. You did break the rule of interrupting the match. You broke into school system of commentary. That is an obvious violation. "

"That was the first thing I talked about. Remember? I told you how I used Muffliato and Ventriliquo to take over the commentary. Then you expressly said that you didn't care about that.

So if you base your inquiry on that, it would just be a hypocrisy."

"You seem like you are desperate to hide something."

"Either 'hide' or 'protect'. In this instance, it would be protecting my rights to not be unduly harassed.

Just by being in authority, you get to question me anytime you want. If on any occasion, I am wrong then there are huge penalties to pay. Yet, if you are wrong, then there are absolutely no consequences.

Why should I be the only one with something at stake? "

"You think it doesn't pain me to doubt you again and again?"

" Does it pain the headmaster?"

"How is that relevant?"

"Who ordered you to interrogate me right now?"

McGonagall didn't reply. Harry knew she wouldn't. She had always had doubt about Headmaster's intentions. And she was honest. Defining her was equivalent to divining her. That part of Harry's arguments was not a strategy, but a truth.

After a moment of mutual silence, Harry said what he wanted to.

"Fine. I will agree to take the Time Turner test.

But on a condition"

"What?" McGonagall was surprised by both the acceptance and the demand.

"A condition." Harry said "And I will tell the condition only after Headmaster permits it. "

He looked at the creases on her face getting more crumpled. She was considering a negative reply.

"Won't it be a fair thing to do professor?" Harry added. If bringing up the concept of 'Fairness' didn't work on McGonagall, then his hope was already gone.

McGonagall's wrinkles ceased compressing further. Harry knew that he had succeeded in convincing her.


	6. Divination Part II

They reached the end of the spiral that led to Dumbledore's office. And then the gate opened to release a shout.

" He Abused me. He was terrible. Asked everybody to give me more food. Can you imagine?" A furious Derrick was shouting at Dumbledore. Harry wondered how he got the meeting with Dumbledore. Maybe he just shouted his way in .

" But my dear Derrick, that is quite terrible" Dumbledore remarked. " You should take strong steps against it.

How about protesting with a hunger strike?"

Harry suppressed laughter. McGonogall wasn't finding anything funny here. When she spoke, Harry noticed she actually seemed concerned about Derrick. It was perhaps only fair. Perhaps even Derrick didn't yet deserve a conversation alone with Dumbledore.

"Headmaster", she said to divert the conversation and Harry distinctly noticed her throwing a kind and concerned look toward Derrick " There is a matter that we need to discuss about Harry, he.."

At mention of Harry's name, Derrick turned in his chair.

"You." Derrick thundered.

" You noticed just now?" Harry said " No wonder you are not a seeker."

Derrick stood up.

"You think you are funny. " Derrick said while walking towards Harry. " Have you forgotten already what I did to you in Quirell's class?"

Derrick stood a shove's distance away from Harry. His eyes locked on Harry's eyes from above.

On the side, McGonagall's concern for Derrick suddenly increased multifold. First coming to Dumbledore's office alone with a complaint and then directly threatening Harry, Derrick certainly was courting trouble with all his heart. "Derrick" she said "Are you.."

Harry could sense some of the surprise in McGonagall's voice. He completed the sentence for her.

"Yes Professor." He said out aloud "He is as thick mentally as he is physically."

"Harry!" McGonagall exclaimed with fury.

Part of Harry did feel appreciation for her. Her current fury was more intense than when she was talking about wrong use of time turner. She was really concerned about Derrick. She was concerned even if Derrick had been a bully for years. She would have punished him most severely if she ever found him guilty. But she wouldn't let that be a biasing factor. She wouldn't let even a bully be bullied.

But, Harry couldn't stop now. He had to bully Derrick a bit more. It was an unexpected development to find him in Dumbledore's office. But now that he was here, it was much easier to move directly to the aim of the whole setup. The perfect opportunity to successfully conclude the first step to overturn the absorption of Dragon and Sunshine armies.

Meanwhile Derrick has had too much. Harry after all had made sure that Derrick should have too much.

" I challenge you" Derrick said, cutting Prof. McGonagall's outburst " I challenge you to a duel?"

"A challenge? Of what?" Harry asked " The only two things you are remotely good at are eating and playing Quidditch. But then you would be afraid of a Quidditch match since you might be defeated by first years. How about a pudding eating contest instead? Let the whole Hogwarts know that you have a moleskin pouch for a stomach." Harry helpfully suggested.

Derrick seemed to be pumping himself wider with breath. This was not good. He was supposed to reply here. Harry asked himself if he had made the proper reply too obscure for Derrick.

Fine, he will make it more obvious with an additional insult.

"Yeah, amongst Quidditch and Eating matches, that's what you ought to choose." Harry continued "The increased width from the contest may help you defend all the three goalposts at once."

" That's it. " Derrick finally found words " I challenge you to a Quidditch match. I would settle for nothing less than humiliating you on the same ground as you humiliated me. It's only fair."

He of course didn't realize that the words that he found were the ones that Harry made him find. He didn't realize that he had started with a challenge of a duel, a wizarding duel, and ended with a Quidditch challenge in stead. He just noticed that he finally had some sort of a victory. So he turned to Headmaster with hope that the permission would be granted.

"Sir, please allow us to have a Quidditch match" Derrick said.

"This can't be allowed." McGonagall said from the side. "None of the first years even play Quidditch. They might be hurt. The idea is insane."

Harry smiled. Things were going according to plan. McGonagall calling an idea insane was a sure sign that Dumbledore would whole-heartedly champion it.

"But Professor" Harry said aloud, addressing McGonagall " Headmaster already approves of this.

He has already approved of the Inter Year Wars in the defense against dark arts classes.

So doesn't that mean that he wants the first year students to break the age barriers."

McGonagall suddenly stopped protesting. She could now see what the whole thing was about. She had been around Dumbledore for too long to not spot a plot in its climax. This was the condition Harry wanted in exchange for the time turner test, condition to challenge the Inter Year War conditions, and now with Derrick being here, he didn't even need to take the test.

Harry continued his appeal to Dumbledore.

"And after all. If a Hero faces a challenge that seems to be beyond him, can he possibly shy away from it?" Harry concluded.

Yup, everything going smooth according to the plan.

Dumbledore laughed.

That was never a good sign. Harry's heart and mind started to race faster just a little bit.

" Minerva. " he said " what was it that you brought Harry in my office for?"

" It was, .. " McGonagall said or tried to " It was on account of the sensitive matter. But I guess we should talk about it later."

"But Minerva, there is no need." Dumbledore said. " I believe Mr. Potter did not breach your instructions on the matter. In fact if I am not wrong, he would have most likely agreed to take the test, but with some condition.

Am I mistaken on that Minerva?"

McGonagall was trying to understand how Dumbledore already knew the outcome of their meeting. She nodded in affirmative.

Harry meanwhile was just reminding himself why Dumbledore laughing was always ominous.

" I had told her earlier that she could question you on the matter but that it would be unnecessary, Harry." Dumbledore addressed him " For you see. I do believe in you."

Harry was surprised for a second.

" And when I say I believe in you" Dumbledore continued, " I mean that at the very least I believe in your lack of guilt, if not innocence."

Harry wasn't surprised any more.

Derrick was looking back and forth as if to try and find subtitles for this conversation.

" And regarding the permission that the two of you seek…" he said looking at Derrick "..well there it is."

A knock came on the open door at that precise moment. Derrick instinctively looked around.

Oliver Wood, Marcus Flint, Roger Davies and Cedric Diggory entered the Headmaster's chambers.

Harry felt a chill. Dumbledore really had foreseen Harry's motive.

" You called us Professor?" Oliver asked.

"Yes, I did." Dumbledore pleasantly replied. " You see I was saying that I believe that things could be predicted. So I predicted that you would be here at this time."

"But professor" Wood calmly replied " You knew that we would be here. You asked us to be here at this time, remember?"

" But I asked you to be here because you were going to be here. " Dumbledore said in a tone that implied that he was imparting unprecedented wisdom on every single being on the planet with this one sentence.

Even Derrick could sense that there was something mad about Dumbledore.

" I hope one day you will all understand that."

5 people in the room passionately hoped that such a day would never come.

" But what you can understand today, " Dumbledore said " is that you are here because you are Captains of your Quidditch team as well as the generals of your armies. Thus due to an agreement between Harry and Derrick, your presence would be desirable in a Quidditch match. If you all agree, you can move to the office of Madam Hooch later on and she will give you further instructions.

I think with the 5 of you, all the positions in the team would be determined except the position of beaters. Assuming of course that Mr. Derrick chooses to return to his previous position of chaser. Thus theoretically, Madam Hooch will choose the beaters, it would seem that the result is currently unpredictable.

But is it?

Is there anybody who really can't predict who those two beaters would be?" He said. And now he was talking directly to Harry " That's what I mean when I say I believe in your 'lack of guilt'. Certain things are not only predictable but inevitable. Aren't they Harry."

Dumbledore said and then started to look at the door.

Things had gone smooth till now. Dumbledore had agreed and also involved the army generals in the Quidditch team. This was just what Harry wanted. But why was Harry getting what he wanted before he could ask it. Just how far has Dumbledore seen his plan. The answer, Harry felt, would be walking soon through the door that Dumbledore was looking at.

A knock that people knew would be heard was in deed heard, Zabini and Bulstrode entered.

Harry felt like he was hit. His complete plan was figured out. Dumbledore didn't just know that Harry had used time turner, but he knew the exact method.

"Please come in" Dumbledore said. " But I am afraid that you aren't supposed to be here."

" But" Zabini said with some hesitation " you were the one who asked us to be here at this precise time. "

" I asked you because you would have been here anyway, but now that you are here, I have to tell you that there was no particular need."

Everybody in the room looked at Zabini and Bulstrode with sympathy in their eyes. They wanted to tell them that Dumbledore's insanity is universal and shouldn't be taken personally. Though that wouldn't have been much help either.

Harry however could clearly listen to the warning being issued to him by Dumbledore. Was this how it was? Did Dumbledore always said things so that it would make sense only to one person whose secret plot was being destroyed? Was that why he sounded insane to everyone else who had no idea about the situation they were in?

Dumbledore continued pleasantly " And this mistake is of course what I meant when I was talking about lack of guilt as well as lack of innocence. " Dumbledore said looking to Harry.

Harry didn't or couldn't say anything back.

"I guess that concludes it. Inter year wars are on hold. The fate of it shall be decided by a Quidditch match that shall be held one month from now." Dumbledore said " Unless of course anybody else here wants to challenge anybody else. This time I will get to decide the method of contest."

A cold shudder went through collective consciousness of the room.

McGonagall came to her senses first.

" Now get moving all of you." She said to her students gently nudging them to the direction of the door. " It is lunch time already, and you must be terribly hungry."

She instantly regretted her words as she found Derrick turning to her with deep hurt in his eyes.

Harry despite himself couldn't help but laugh.


	7. Divination Part III

"Harry" Zabini whispered to Harry.

Others left for the great Hall for lunch. Bulstrode traveled the fastest to outrun the breaking gossip of an Inter Year Quidditch match. She had to. After all with her time turner recently limited to 6 hours she didn't have much room to spare that day after a busy match.

Zabini thus continued whispering even if they were now alone " What was that all about? Did Dumbledore know about us taking the bets on Quidditch match?"

Harry looked at Zabini. His obvious attempts to mix an accusation with a question was almost cute.

" You mean to say that does Dumbledore know that you take bets on a Quidditch match. That you have been taking the bets this entire season, and have been making sure that students here have much lesser pocket money. " Harry replied.

" You say as if you disapprove Harry. You were the one who gave me the idea of taking the whole thing to Floo book. You showed me how to do it, how to have people commit the amount in writing and make sure that curses would fire on them if they breach the contract.

You even told me exactly what bets to make.

And boy was it a good business. No more betting on the winner and looser only. One can bet for every single point. Funny thing is that whole thing is addictive. The more the people bet, the more they want to bet."

"Of course. " Harry suppressed his detest for Gambling and Zabini's delight over people's addiction. He continued in plain conversational tone "But the thing is that Dumbledore knows about the whole thing now, so you should close it as soon as possible."

Harry started to walk away.

" You can't just walk off like this." Zabini called behind him. " You are involved in this too. If Dumbledore knows about this then you have to figure out how to get him off this."

Harry continued to walk, only change was that he was laughing now.

" I know why you helped me with betting" Zabini said.

Harry stopped.

" It is not a coincidence that you just came up to me and helped me make bets and then went on to predict the entire game. Is it?" Zabini continued.

Harry turned back

" You aren't into gambling or Quidditch. You just took the whole data from bets and saw who was the favorite. Maybe applied some muggle science or something on it. "

Harry relaxed. So Zabini didn't really know about what had happened. He was just guessing.

" I will tell Dumbledore the whole story. You wouldn't want that would you?"

One day Zabini would grow up to be a fine example of slytherin manipulator. Currently though he was just a kid. Harry couldn't even feel proper anger towards him.

" I wouldn't want that, would I?" Harry said " Let me see. I told you how to use Floo Book properly and wrote a couple of bets for you.

Did I ever ask you to make the bets?"

"Of course, you clearly said that I could do whatever I want with it." Zabini said and then stopped.

" You realize already.

What I did could have just been an exercise in studying probability.

What you did was not only rule breaking, it might as well as have been a crime." Harry bluffed. He didn't know the legal stand of magical world on betting, but with Zabini, he didn't need to get serious, he could just play around.

"So while I may be questioned and mildly chided by McGonagall, you may find that your wand is being snapped in two and you are joining Hagrid in his hut as an assistant to keep watch on the monsters in the Forbidden Forest.

So I don't think you want to do what you said you want to do, unless you also want to spend the rest of your life trying to double cross an Aragog." Harry said.

Zabini didn't know what an Aragog was, but he was sure that he didn't want to know either.

"But then again" Harry said " You do like to shoot yourself.

So by all means, do tell Dumbledore ."

And Harry walked away this time with no interruption from Zabini who was holding on tight to his unsnapped wand.

...

The lunch was already over by the time Harry reached the Great hall. He moved on towards the Ravenclaw dormitory.

He was facing the portrait of the Ravenclaw lady that nobody seemed to know the name of. She was much like her riddles that one had to answer to gain entrance.

She smiled at him when she saw him approach. " If a war's outcome is known beforehand then is it worth fighting?" She asked.

That was rather topical. Where did she get her questions? Did she know somehow what happens in the castle and make a question based on that?

"No war's outcome is ever known before it is fought." Harry answered with a slight guilt in his voice. Harry wondered if he really believed in that answer.

"Correct young Raven. You may now enter".

The door opened. Harry entered the common room.

All the activity in the room came to a stop.

Of course they all knew about the forthcoming Quidditch match, Harry thought. One could count on Milicent Bulstrode to spread the word. She might have even used the remaining limit of her time turner after she had used it to place the correct bets on morning's Quidditch match.

She got them all correct. Not even a bluff or two to make it look normal. And she had been doing it all season.

So to know the scores, all Harry had to do was to organize the bets of Zabini on the point level, had to tell him to place bets not only on the winner and loser, but for every single goal scored. That and a little hacking in the Floo Book to check whom did Bulstrode bet upon, and he knew the entire result before hand without even using his time turner.

It went rather well, except that Dumbledore seemed to have figured it all out. A real problem.

But Harry didn't get time to think on it.

The intensity of the gazes in the room thickened as Ravenclaw Quidditch Captain Roger Davies approached Harry.

" Harry, we know why you did it." Roger said " We were uncomfortable too with involuntary absorption of Sunshine and Dragon army. "

" I appreciate your candour captain." Harry replied. " I would have expected nothing less from a Ravenclaw."

"And I would expect nothing less than your trademark brilliance on the Quidditch field Harry. Your commentary today was excellent. Let's see if you can match the results on the field as well.

May the best team win." Roger said extending his hand.

" May the best team win " Harry replied and shook Roger's hand.

Ravenclaw house burst with cheer. The game was on.


	8. Friendly Fire

Harry walked along the corridor, already playing the Quidditch match in his head that others will be playing one month later. A voice behind him bludgered those thoughts away.

"Hey Harry"  
>Harry turned with a start. The corridor was supposed to be empty, so when did Fred come behind him?<br>"Hey Harry"  
>Harry re turned with a fresh start. Now George was standing on the opposite side.<p>

How did they sneak in? Invisibility cloak, unlikely, one was rare enough, two would be outside any decent probability. Disillusionment charm? No, too advanced. If Weasley twins knew it, Hogwarts would be a war zone by now. But, then.. Ah, of course.

Harry sidestepped and looked down. Fred and George were still standing with one foot on their broom. They must have been practicing outside in the grounds and flied in when they saw Harry crossing the corridor.

"Nice flying." Harry said " I didn't even hear you land. Madam Hooch should definitely pick you up for the senior team. Or have you been already picked and came to tell me the obvious?"

"Harry" George sighed "Harry, Harry" Fred continued and concluded.  
>"This feels all wrong. Its almost like in any reality we should have been playing from the same side."<br>"But you know us. If it's wrong we have got to do it."  
>"Matter of principle you see. So don't take it personally when we come after you in this match."<br>"For we will come after you. We will be ignoring everyone else just to get to you."  
>"You better make it fun. Don't be crushed too easily."<br>"From now on, it's a war."  
>"No hard feelings then"<p>

The pure glee of malice on the twins' faces was a sight of marvel. It was rare to see so much happiness on a human face. Harry had trouble for a moment paying attention to the actual declaration of war.  
>" Are you sure guys?" Harry asked them." For I will pull no punches either if you are declaring war."<p>

"This is Quidditch Harry. You might be a good flier, you may even understand the theory of it better than anybody else but you have never yet played this game."  
>"So the question is are you sure?"<p>

Harry looked at both of them. This was going to be more fun than expected. He should really be thanking Professor Quirell for his brilliant injustice later on.

"No. The real question is.." Harry said ".. do you know that a broom can listen."

"What?" Fred and George said together. How did this even relate to the conversation?

"There are two ways to give command to a broom. One is by weight shifting, which we do while flying. And the other one is by voice commands. Like when we say 'up' to mount the broom and the broom listens if we really mean it."

" Of course we know it. This is the first thing taught in flying sessions"  
>"So?"<p>

"So" Harry replied with an evil grin that made him look like the third twin. " I can do this"

To Weasley twins it all seemed to have happened in a slow motion. Harry extended both his arms looking like some evil muggle messiah and then said in a calm booming voice. " Up!"

Two brooms flew from under the twins. The twins spun once in the air like vertical tops. A beautiful hyperbole was formed with their curved backs, just for a second. And then two thuds, travelling faster than an echo, ended the sudden slow motion for the twins who were on the ground.

Both brooms were now tucked in Harry's hand. The war so far wasn't going good for the twins and a look at Harry's grin, as seen from the ground, made them sure that it hasn't ended yet.

He walked over to the middle and placed the brooms in the air above twins.

"Down." He slowly said.

Twins didn't know there was a 'down' command too. They never checked it. Did anybody?

But they couldn't think further about it as their own brooms came down slowly and started to press against them.

"Now they can't land" Harry said "because you are in the way, so not knowing what else to do they will keep pressing. At the same time, you can't move away because they won't stop pressing. Its something called deadlock.

Nice name, right?"

And with that Harry walked away and twins heard him singing a song as he went:

"War! huh-yeah  
>What is it good for?<br>Absolutely nothing  
>Uh-huh"<p>

-

The sound of the song slowly faded and Twins began to escape from their own brooms inch by inch.  
>"Catchy tune, huh." George said.<br>"We knew something like this might happen. Its ok, this had to be done." Fred said from under his own broom as he tried to move further sideways.  
>"Of course." George agreed, "Who wanted a friendly match."<br>They finally inched their way out from under their pressing brooms. The brooms finally landed and became inactive. Both stood together looking in the direction Harry had just gone.

"We won't let you destroy Quidditch that easily. Because 'War', dear Harry.."George said  
>" ..means nothing unless it means everything." Concluded Fred.<p> 


	9. The First Years

Harry entered the empty classroom that was now declared to be the Quidditch team's (Or according to Draco, Quidditch Army's) headquarters and he saw Draco and Hermione in discussion.

"You are late." Hermione helpfully reminded him.

" I was just dealing with Weasley twins' war declaration."

"Are you kidding?" Draco asked " Weasley twins are declaring war against you?"

"Its their way of being friendly. They wanted to make sure that I won't go easy on them." Harry replied with respect in his voice.

"Gryffindors." Draco said in a tone that seemed to explain everything in one word.

"So back to our issues. Whom are we selecting?" Hermione said.

" Well," Draco replied " I am presuming that we three are already there."

"And why are we presuming that? I don't even know how to fly properly"

"You won't need to fly Hermione. " Harry said. "All you would have to do is hover. There is a role in my game plan that only you can play, so you absolutely have to be there."

"There better be good reason for that." Hermione said. Harry knew that she would have hated to be on the team just because she was a general. If she were there, she would want to be a top contributor.

"There is." Harry assured her and turned to Malfoy " So that makes our numbers three and then Goyle has to be there, he is the best flier in the armies by a far range."

"Yes, and I guess Neville has to be there too. He is already well adapted to the Chaos strategy." Draco replied. Inclusion of Neville was obvious given his performance, but Draco felt that since Harry had just named a Dragon army soldier for the team, so Draco should name a Chaos soldier too.

"That does leave us with two positions." Hermione said. It was sort of tough for her to keep up with a Quidditch discussion. She was still wondering if she really deserved to be on the team.

"The way I see it, I will be playing the position that has to be destroyed: The seeker position. " Harry said, "Neville will be the keeper, Draco will lead the attack with the chasers." Hermione suddenly realized that this was not going in any good direction. Harry continued " And Hermione and Goyle would be the beaters. "

Hermione's jaws dropped as if they had just discovered gravity.

" Excuse me." Hermione said " Beater? You want me to carry around a heavy bat chasing after random bludger balls and hit them so that they can hurt other people? I am a Gragner and not a Weasley remember?"

"No you aren't. Not in this reality." Harry sighed.

Draco and Hermione exchanged looks with each other. Harry had clearly stayed for too long in Dumbledore's office.

"But what if you don't need to be?" Harry said. " You see I have a Beater-beater strategy. We shall discuss it later. Our current question is now who the two remaining 'chasers' should be."

"Come on, we are already playing with a seeker who won't seek, a beater who is so nice that she won't beat, or fly. So what do we need the 3 chasers for? Haven't you thought of a Chaser-chaser strategy yet?" Draco couldn't help but ask.

" No I haven't" Harry seriously replied. " I find this part to be the essence of the game. I don't want to change it. We need actual players for this post.

So who are the two people who are good in flying, are a bit sporty and have excellent co-ordination"

" If its co-ordination we are talking about" Draco said " ..then I think I have two names.

Junior level champions of synchronized flying, the Patil twins."


	10. Practices

" So Derrick would be playing as a chaser rather than the keeper and the captain and keeper of the senior team would be Oliver Wood." Hermione read out the list given by Madam Hooch " that is strange. Hasn't Gryffindor lost all the matches till now?"

"I have checked his info" Draco replied " The only reason that Gryffindor hasn't won all the matches this year is that they don't have a seeker worth a knut. Its almost as if the position is cursed. A DADA teacher has better survival odds, at least they stay for one year; no Gryffindor seeker has stayed on for more than a match.

But as far as the rest of the team goes, its near perfect.

His use of strategy is fascinating to watch. He deploys resources with creativity. Weasley Brothers have truly become a threat during his captaincy.

So strong is their defense that this year there have been two matches of Gryffindor where number of goals by opposition chasers had been zero.

In one match, their chasers went up to the score of 140 against zero till the other seeker caught the snitch.

And then of course there is Wood himself, the super-keeper.

Our chasers have quite a task here."

"Draco," Harry said "It seems to me that this is the key problem.

Our keeper Neville would be trying out a rather unusual approach, so he won't be able to help you with the traditional super-ness.

What we need is an obstacle that would allow you to practice against invincibility. We would need our own super-keeper.

Any candidates?" Harry asked.

Draco's eyes were non responsive for a while. And then there was a glow.

" I think I can arrange a super keeper. When would you need him?"

...

At 5 a.m. Harry was with Patil twins in the ground, waiting for Draco.

Twins were doing the warm up with their broom sticks. It was a routine Harry was unfamiliar with. They rose, dove, spun and braked with such precision that Harry felt like he was watching synchronous swimming in air. Slight morning mists made it appear as if only one of them were real, and other a mirage.

Harry looked at the grounds again. He had to move to the chambers to disucss implementation of strategies with Neville, Hermione and Goyle. Where was Draco?

As if in answer figure of Draco emerged from the mist.

"Hi. I hope I am not too late. I had to snake in, I mean sneak in and out of the kitchen you see." Draco said.

"You wanted an early snake, I mean an early snack?" Harry innocently asked.

"No" Draco dignifiedly ignored the PJ "I wanted the cook. Harry, meet our own practice super-keeper. "

A little green creature emerged from behind Draco. He had eyes that were the size of small tennis balls. Early morning sun was getting reflected in them making them look slightly fiery.

"Hello Mr. Harry Potter" he spoke in a soft squeak that didn't go with those fiery eyes at all " Dobby is honored to meet you."

...

Patil and Patil spiraled their way forward.

" They are good." Harry said.

" In deed." Draco agreed.

They kept on constantly passing the quaffle amongst themselves. It was hard to keep the track of who is the one keeping the quaffle. Their identical appearances only helped their camouflage.

Parvati and Padma flew on opposite sides making it nearly impossible to observe both the players at once.

Padma threw the quaffle. It was slightly off the good angle. Harry noticed that while they were both good in flying and keeping synchronization, their throwing was a bit off.

But the angle was still beyond Dobby's blind spot. It would travel past him with ease.

It didn't. Dobby easily shifted his broom and caught the quaffle with one easy flick of a hand.

Harry wondered if it was because of Dobby's eyes. Maybe his blind spot area was much less.

" How is he so good?" Harry asked Draco.

"Oh, he has been playing Quidditch with me since childhood. Dad wanted me to get good, so he was just ordered not to let the ball pass.

So he has been trying his hardest since childhood. I was rarely able to get a ball past him. Sometimes I would just order him to let me score. It would be funny to see him dealing with two contradictory orders." Draco proudly said.

Harry felt slightly uncomfortable. He should remember not to let Hermione know too much about this issue.

" But how was a Hogwarts house elf your playmate?" Harry asked.

" He has been a Hogwarts house elf only since I have joined the school. We sort of donated him.

Its simple actually. When a Malfoy moves in Hogwarts, we simply order a house elf of ours to come here asking for a job. Hogwarts, for its part, is always happy to accept more free labour.

So he comes here and is supposed to work for Hogwarts, but in truth, I can ask him to do anything since his first obedience is still with me." Draco smiled.

Harry's eyes moved from Draco to Dobby. He had just saved another goal and the two Patils were hovering side-by-side, angrily glaring at him.

" Harry?" Draco noticed Harry's sudden solemn-ness. "Is anything wrong?"

"No, nothing. Just that Hermione may have some problem with this." Harry said, still looking at Dobby.

"And do you have any problem with this?" Draco asked.

" I think that whoever made House Elves like this was evil." Harry replied " But I also think that Hermione is not doing them any favor now to try and make them go against their design. I have almost told Hermione this once before, but didn't.

Anyway, just ask Dobby to come over after the meeting tonight. Will ask Hermione to stay over. I think this issue is best discussed away from the group."

"Sure. Tonight then." Draco replied, wondering what consequences would that discussion yield. But then, he wasn't going to say no to Harry over a house elf.


	11. Asimov's One and Half Laws Part I

Later that night:

" We are using him for our practice?" Hermione asked in a voice that almost rose to a shriek.

" Hermione, I know you might have problem with this. So I thought that let's clear both our positions on the matter in his presence.

I believe that whoever designed them is extremely evil. But now they have been designed that way I don't think there is much we can do.

So if you have problem with us using Dobby for practice, you must tell what can we do about him." Harry calmly replied.

" You really believe that his condition can't be changed?" Hermione asked.

"Hermione, it's like they have been hardwired to follow the orders. What do you think you are going to do now?

Give him a Godel-esque command 'I order you not to follow orders?'" Harry said and then stopped.

It was like a sudden thought wiped out every other reality for him.

" Actually it's a rather good idea, don't you think. I'll try it right now."

"Stop" Hermione's voice was now an actual shriek. " You are giving him an 'order' Harry, not a 'command', its not that innocent, he is not a computer program. And even a computer program would crash on that one. What do you want to do to Dobby, drive him insane?"

"Relax. I wasn't directly going to give him Godel command. I would have tried other things first. And even then I would have modified the final command to " I order you to not follow any further orders until they are in your interest", or something similar. That won't crash a program, would it?" Harry asked.

" I repeat Harry, he is not a program." Hermione said in a calm and firm tone.

" Well magical creatures are created with certain fixed rules, so his behaviour would be somewhat similar to a program. How about we start with simple commands, I mean orders" Harry corrected himself as he saw the look on Hermione's face "..and see how he reacts to it. We will come to know if he can actually be helped or not."

Hermione took a moment to think that over. Harry took that to mean that she had no issue.

"Great. I will be giving him a complex set of commands to check how he handles the data. So first let's check whether he follows order list in FIFO or LIFO." He said and then continued talking to Dobby " Dobby, I am going to give you two commands right now. Start following them only when I have given you both the commands. Ok?"

Dobby looked at both of them and nodded. He felt strange that people were asking him whether or not it was ok to give an order.

Hermione meanwhile was immersed in seeing what was going on. She had even stopped trying to correct Harry's use of 'command' back to 'order'.

" First command is" Harry said, " that you should not follow my second command.

My second command is that you go and sit on that chair." Harry said and pointed to a chair.

Dobby stood blinking. He did nothing.

" Great, now let's reverse it. I am again going to give you two commands. Follow them only after I have given both the commands.

My first command is to go sit on that chair and my second command is to not follow my first command. "

Dobby moved and sat on the chair that was pointed at.

And then, he suddenly looked possessed as the time to fulfill the second order came.

"Harry!" Hermione shouted as both of them rushed towards him. Dobby was not the docile, cute-ugly creature that they were with just a moment ago.

No longer he was blinks, wide eyes and eagerness.

He was rage, madness and guilt.

He took the chair and tried to hit himself with it. Harry and Hermione tried to stop him from doing so , but their combined physical effort didn't contain Dobby's self destruction streak.

Dobby found the chair to be too light, so he rushed to a wall. And started to bang his head.

He is a head banger on rock now. Harry observed. What has happened to my sense of humor, he then questioned.

"Stop!" He shouted.

Dobby stopped.

Hermione rushed towards him to examine him "Are you ok? Are you hurt in anyway? Should we take you to Madam Pomfrey?"

Dobby was apparently ok. He was stopped just in time.

"Great." Harry said, "So you follow FIFO then.

Now, are you ready to move on with next command chain?"

"What do you mean by next command chain?" Hermione interrupted. She was determined that there wasn't going to be any more 'command', let alone a 'chain'.

"You are the one who wants to change him Hermione.

Do you now see what that process or even attempt would mean to him?" Harry asked. "And after all that I am still not sure if he would be able to change his hardwired instructions; the primary magic of a house-elf's creation."

Hermione was breathing anger.

"Change may be always painful Harry but that doesn't mean that the pain has to be made beyond endurance.

Your approach isn't the only approach to try and change him.

In fact, this is not even your approach." Hermione said.

" Not my approach? Then whose is it?" Harry asked.

" Professor Quirrell's."

"What?"

"You are doing the same thing to Dobby that Prof. Quirell did to you in the class when he asked Derrick and others to push you around. "

"That was.." Harry protested.

"That was beyond excuse." Hermione replied. " The only reason Professor Quirell got away with it, the only reason Dumbledore didn't fire him or did something worse than firing, the only reason that entire Ravenclaw or at least I didn't jump in to stop that class was because of you.

Because you consented. Because you were convinced it was good for you. Because you showed us that you could endure that concentrated pain of growing up.

But apparently we were wrong. Apparently that pain was in deed beyond you.

Or you wouldn't have tried to do the same thing to Dobby. "

" Hermione. You are just being too sensitive. Look at him; Dobby is ok. Totally unharmed.

If anything at all I was just trying to do the same thing as you, trying to see if he could be freed of his servitude.

You are angry because you have just seen what your efforts would lead to." Harry calmly replied.

Hermione looked at him, her fury now cold.

" Dobby" she said to the elf ".. come with me. We are getting out of here." And with a regal air she walked out of the classroom.

Dobby followed Hermione out of the door. Just before the door closed, he looked at Harry. And then the door closed shut.

" 'Dobby, come with me.'" Harry mimicked Hermione's words that echoed in that empty classroom " So when it suits her, then she is ok with commanding house elves."


	12. Asimov's One and Half Laws Part II

The doors of the dormitories opened. Though these doors were different, the path they led to tonight was the same.

For tonight all roads led to the headquarters of the Sunshine Army.

Daphne, Lavender, Hannah, Parvati, Padma, Susan and Tracey marched with an understanding that required no words.

The news was out.

Hermione had finally managed to land a victim.

...

Dobby was confused. Dobby was very very confused.

" Leave him. Let him go, or at least breathe. He is Not a teddy bear." Hermione gasped as she tried to save Dobby from a literal embrace of death.

"But he is so cute." Daphne cooed. " Look at his eyes."

"I thought house elves were invisible." Hannah said.

" No they aren't. They just work in a way that we don't notice them." Susan answered.

"Yes. And that's the problem." Hermione said.

Everybody turned to Hermione. Things were about to get seriously heroic.

Hermione spoke with precise passion " They work tirelessly because they have been magically designed to do so. They don't work because of their free will; they work because they don't have any other option than that of following orders.

In return we don't reward them, we don't even give them a salary.  
>Salary? We order them to not even be seen.<p>

You know why? So that we don't see what we are doing to them.

Its not them that we don't want to see, its our own evil.

We have got to stop this." Hermione concluded.

There was a general silence of shock. Hermione continued.

" Dobby is a house elf of Hogwarts. Yet because Malfoys owned him earlier, he currently has not only to follow orders, but has to follow orders of two masters. He has to follow his duties towards Hogwarts and then he has to follow Malfoy's order as well.

So if Malfoy orders him to wake up at 5 a.m. to practice Quidditch, he has to do it even if his official duty doesn't begin till much later.

We think we have problems with the homework? Look at Dobby." Hermione said.

Everybody looked at Dobby.

Padma and Parvati gasped.

" We didn't realize that it was so wrong to use him in Quidditch practice." Padma said.

" I am glad I joined this group or else I wouldn't have known what injustice was going on. This is wrong" Parvati agreed with her twin sister which was a rather rare occurrence.

"It is decided." Tracey suddenly said. " We won't let him play Quidditch."

A sudden resolve spread through the room instantly.

The heroines had decided.

They all looked solemnly up to the sky that a mere castle ceiling couldn't have blocked from their imagination.

And then there was a cough, a slight choking sound.

" Dobby" Hermione rushed to him " what happened?"

"I..I.. No nothing" Dobby fumbled with words.

" Go ahead Dobby, tell us what you are trying to say." Hermione encouraged him.

" The thing is, I , um, Dobby actually likes playing Quidditch." Dobby managed to say in a low voice.

A silence struck the room.

" Its decided then." Tracey quickly handled the situation " we won't let anybody stop Dobby from playing."

So the heroines had decided again.

" We will make sure Dobby that you aren't over exerted." Hermione said. " If you ever feel tired, or if you want to take time off, you can tell it to Padma and Parvati and they will help you. And if Harry tries to order you around, you can come and tell me." Hermione told him.

" Dobby likes Harry Potter." Dobby said in a voice that was not a squeak.

Hermione noticed that Dobby was suddenly less hesitant.

" Well, I too like him." Hermione admitted.

It was a sign of how serious the room's atmosphere had become that nobody cooed at this sentence.

" But he could be a bit harsh sometimes." Hermione said, "Then he doesn't care if he is hurting somebody. Like he was doing today with you."

" Dobby has been in much worse conditions. Harry Potter was kind. He even asked me if he could order me.

He. He talked to me." Dobby said.

Hermione was listening very closely and every word said so much more than its meaning. 'Talked to me'? Was even that a big thing for Dobby?

"And then," Dobby continued, " He is The-Boy-who-Lived, he helped end the rule of Dark Lord".

"Dobby." Hermione involuntary said. Her words trying to reach Dobby who had suddenly changed in front of their eyes. As if a memory had possessed him. A deep, sad, memory that shone from the eyes of the house elf.

Dobby was quite.

And then he was as quickly back to his nervous, unsure self as he realised what he was talking about.

"What did Dark Lord do to you?" Susan asked.

The group had drawn closer.

" Go ahead Dobby. Don't worry. Tell us." Lavender said.

Hermione wondered whether Dobby started to speak because he felt comfortable enough to share or whether he interpreted the words of Lavender as an order. But Dobby did answer.

" Dark Lord did bad bad things." Dobby said, " Particularly to the house elves.

He was bad. Very bad. Harry Potter saved us from him." Dobby concluded.

" What bad things did he do to house elves?" Parvati asked. She wondered what possibly worse treatment could be given out to house elves.

Hermione wasn't sure if this should continue. What if Dobby was taking their questions and encouragements as orders? What if he ended up telling them something that they shouldn't know?

No.

To be a heroine meant that she couldn't avoid a reality just because it was convenient to be ignorant. She may be afraid, but that's precisely why this was so important. She won't let her fear guide her sense of what is right.

"Yes Dobby. Go on. Tell us what You-Know-Who did to elves, but only if you feel like talking about it." Hermione said, wording it so that it didn't come out like a command.

Dobby looked at them for a while, looked down. And then, began talking.

" There is dark magic. Spells that are not allowed. Dark Lord had many people around him who couldn't perform those spells. So, so.. he made them practice, on us." Dobby said and kept looking at the ground.

" Spells that are not allowed? Do you mean Unforgivable Curses?" Hermione asked with horror.

Dobby nodded. Everybody in the room who understood what the Unforgivable Curses were, went numb.

Dobby continued. " There are still amongst us those who celebrate The Dark Lord.

Those who think that a house elf who died during death eaters practicing Avadakedavra on him, was a hero.

But it was bad. Bad bad.

Dobby doesn't think that it was good to die for him. Dobby punishes self for such thoughts constantly."

Hermione wanted to touch his shoulder. Tell him that it was all ok. She couldn't. Part of her wanted to believe that it was because she didn't want to disturb him while telling the story. Part of her knew that this was just a pale shadow of the fear that one faces in front of true darkness. She kept on listening to him, while keeping a watch on her own reactions, her own fear.

"We were considered best for Excruciatus curse. A death eater who used to 'practice' on me told me that it is easy to learn how to excruciate us because we were all so naturally disgusting.'"

Dobby's suppressed fury was becoming contagious. Hermione noticed that her mind found fear to be irrelevant now. It only knew rage.

" But what was really bad was 'Imperius curse'" Dobby said.

"Imperius curse?" Susan asked.

Everybody looked at her. She herself looked surprised that she had interrupted. But she had to ask something.

" But wouldn't Imperius curse be of no use against house elves? Aren't you supposed to follow orders anyway?" Susan asked.

She knew what an Imperius curse was, she had heard about it plenty of times in her family and never was there a happy mention. Taking away somebody's free will was heinous.

When she said this, she suddenly understood what a great sin wizard kind was committing against house-elves. It was like house-elves had been permanently put under an Imperius curse.

She felt like vomiting.

"Yes. We are. We do follow orders." Dobby said. A bit of a squeak returned to his voice.

"But" Dobby continued " There are certain things that we are not permitted to do.

We can't harm a wizard.

But Dark Lord was bad. Death eaters were bad.

When they wanted to do something very very bad, then they would use us. They would use Imperius on us and then they would remove the curse once we had done what they had asked us to do.

The elf would see what he had done, things that no house elf is supposed or allowed to ever do.

And then.."

"Would he die?" Tracey asked. She was silently crying.

" .. no. He wouldn't die.

He just wouldn't be.

He wouldn't understand anything anymore. Wouldn't do anything. Wouldn't even follow orders.

Death eaters would just leave him and he wouldn't even move or look for food.

Wouldn't even eat if somebody tried to feed him. Wouldn't drink water if somebody cried and begged him to.

He just wouldn't be."

Dobby was perhaps the only person in the room not crying.

"Harry Potter made Dark Lord go away.

Harry Potter is great. And he is kind too. You too are kind." He looked at Hermione " Dobby is honored to meet you all. "

Dobby was back in his previous personality. Once again a cute-ugly creature who was keen to follow orders.

There was something strange about Dobby's behaviour. As if he was constantly struggling with himself.

"Dobby" Hermione asked as sudden inspiration struck her " You can read, right?"

Dobby mumbled something.

"Repeat that again, will you? And a bit louder this time please." Hermione urged him.

" Yes Dobby can read." He said " Master Malfoy told me to learn reading and writing, so that I could do his homework."

"Outrageous." Daphny said.

" Actually " Hermione said in a thoughtful tone " That might have been the single best thing that Draco has ever done."

The girls turned to look at Hermione. What did she mean?

"Dobby. Would you be willing to read a book if I suggested it? I promise that it would be very important." Hermione said to him.

" Dobby would be honored to read a book that Mistress Hermione suggests. Dobby would be very happy." Dobby said and seemed genuinely happy by the very thought.

" Oh, that's perfect then. " Hermione said " Now the only question is how do we find time for you to read that book. As it is, with two masters, you can't be having too much time.

Can you stop doing the Hogwarts' work?" She asked.

Dobby's expression once again changed. It was almost like Dobby was suffering from a multiple personality disorder. He was now back to the frenzy that he had displayed earlier with Harry.

"No. Must work. Can't stop. No" Dobby said and started to wildly shake his head. It was slightly un-nerving to watch. Hermione suspected that he didn't start to hit himself only because the order wasn't yet given, just mentioned.

"Stop" Hermione immediately said.

He stopped.

"Right" Hermione said " You can't just ignore a previously given order. FIFO"

Nobody in the room understood what Hermione had just said. What was FIFO?

But Hermione was thoughtful. She could see now why Harry had checked Dobby for that. At least they had some knowledge about Dobby's condition now. They knew that he followed orders using FIFO Maybe she was too harsh on Harry.

She would make up by telling him what she found out. As it seemed by Dobby's story, apparently no house elf was supposed to harm a human being. Harry would like to know that.

But that aside, the problem remained, how to get extra time for Dobby when Hogwarts had already given him the general list of daily activities that a house elf had to do.

"Aha" She smiled and turned to the heroines. It was a smile that was universally understood.

Hermione had a plan.

...

Next morning:

Draco was furious.

" But that is my house elf." He was shouting at the twins. " Now that the morning practice is over, what do you have to do with him?"

Padma and Parvati Patil both had their wands aimed threateningly at Draco.

"We?" Padma asked.

"We don't have anything to do with him" Parvati clarified.

"He will decide for himself what he has to do with his time."

"If however you try to give him an order to the contrary."

" Or try to give him a routine order, something that he has to do daily.."

" Then we will hex you."

"For starters. Then every girl in Hogwarts will hex you."

"And keep on hexing you whenever we feel like it."

" Do not mess with SPHEW.

The heroines have decided." Padma and Parvati said together.

Draco didn't say a word. He didn't even ask what the hell was SPHEW.


	13. Harry's Game

25 days to the match

..

"Harry, why are we playing this game?" Draco asked. And there was a visible irritation in his voice as he ended the practice.

Harry knew what SPHEW had done. He had to suppress the smirk every time Draco looked angry from then onwards.

" What do you mean?" Harry innocently asked.

" You say that we are playing this game to stop the absorption of Sunshine and Dragon army. But yet, look at your plan. What we are doing is not about winning, its about destroying the game. " Draco said.

Twins had landed and were at a distance. Clearly listening without being too obvious.

"Why exactly are we playing this game?" Draco asked.

" For Power. " Harry replied.

Draco hadn't expected such a clear-cut response. He was too used to being bewildered in Harry's company.

Simplicity thus seemed to be just the latest deception.

" We would have got the power just by winning this game." Draco said.

" No. What we would have gotten is freedom.

But that same freedom has been taken away from us once. When we get it back, we will also get back its vulnerability.

Therefore there has to be a different kind of freedom that we should win.

And that's what is power- Freedom with surplus to spare."

Draco looked at him. Harry finally understood. Harry was finally on the Slytherin way. The time spent with him wasn't wasted at all.

Draco agreed and walked away satisfied.

Dobby, standing behind the twins, squeaked.

...

1 night to the match.

...

Harry was standing in front of the portrait sealing the Ravenclaw door.

" You have got to be kidding me. " He said.

" You are already a kid, young Raven. I see not how I did anything regarding that." The lady in the portrait looked slightly perplexed.

Harry cursed himself (not literally though). Of course a century old portrait wouldn't understand current slang.

But then why were its questions so current and contextual with an alarming frequency?

Why with just a night to go for the game, was the portrait asking..

" Why do we play games?"

" For Power. For Victory." Harry answered.

" Incorrect ." The lady in the Portrait replied.

...

24 days to the match

...

" Harry. " Parvati called.

" There is something we want to discuss." Padma said.

From many synchronized conversations with Weasleys and now Patils, Harry felt justified to postulate that there was an inbuilt sense of déjà-vu in any conversation with twins. Or rather reverse of Déjà vu, where he felt to be the only one who hadn't seen it all before.

"Dobby is very disturbed regarding what you said last morning to Draco." Parvati said. Or was it Padma?

They had rounded up on Harry when he was discussing the scenarios with Neville. Probably they didn't want to talk to Harry with Draco around.

" Dobby is so upset, he couldn't even talk to you." Parvati said. Definitely Parvati this time.

"We are playing this game for Power? Really?" Padma said with disgust.

"Yes." Harry answered." What's wrong with that?"

"But that is the Dark Lord's way. The quest for power is evil."

" Really?

Heard of Nicolo Machiavelli?

He was an Italian Philosopher. Wrote a book called 'The Prince', also called 'Handbook of evil'.

And on an aside, 'The Prince' is the correct name. There was no 'Half-blood' in there. Even if Albus and Snape are there." Harry said.

Everybody's understanding experienced a sudden blackout.

Harry himself wondered if allegations that Dumbledore was contagious were true. Harry could see that his sense of humor had taken a life of its own. Or more accurately, that his sense of humor had taken its own life.

Harry shook himself mentally and continued.

" That book talked about how to gain power and how to retain it.

Some of the most repulsive strategies are mentioned there with a calm mechanical efficiency. Something to be done as the obvious first thing.

More than the methods described there it's the manner of description that shakes people.

Yet, what I found evil in that book was that not even once does writer mentions or questions 'What to do with power?'

If anything is really stupid, wrong, or as is popularly said 'evil', it is that absence.

Of all the leaders we see, most just want to reach to the top of the system, and remain there. That's their understanding of the power.

But to change the system for the better, that takes more than just power, it takes purpose.

We are looking for power yes. But what we seek is not a purposeless power. We know what we want to do with it. We know how we want to change the game for better.

To take away the aristocratic snitch from an otherwise democratic game. To stop one's age from becoming a discrimination factor. To stop 'seniority' to become a synonym for 'superiority' in Hogwarts. That and a little more.

But none of that can be done without power.

So don't consider our quest evil, not until we have power in surplus of purpose."

...

1 night to the match.

...

" You are drunk aren't you?" Harry respectfully asked the Portrait.

"Wrong answer." She tonelessly replied, ignoring the sarcastic respect effortlessly.

" Are you really supposed to be doing this? Who gave you this question?"

"Wrong answer. "

" Ok fine. I will play along.

We play games to find out why we play games.

That deep enough for you?"

"Wrong answer."

Harry stood staring at the portrait in disbelief.

" Ok. How about this?

We play games because we have to. We are in midst of some game from the moment of birth to the death. At best we can choose our game."

"Wrong answer."

...

1 night and a few hours before the match..

...

It was all set.

Harry's final session with Neville came to the conclusion. Everybody else had gone for sleep early.

"Harry." Neville said as they walked out of the empty classroom.

He stopped besides a window that overlooked the forbidden forests. Somewhere in the grounds, Hagrid had lit fire. With all the magic that surrounded them , there was still something about a lonely fire in a dark night, something beyond magic.

Harry didn't ask Neville, what did he want to say. He just sat on the windowsill opposite. Nothing but an absurd star sprinkled sky behind him.

" Why? "Neville finally asked.

Why what? Harry wanted to ask. Why we are playing this game?

Why we aren't just facing the real dark forces? Why we aren't chasing Bellatrix instead?

Why aren't we growing up all at once?

He wondered what Neville wanted to ask. But then he already knew it. Knew what that particular 'why' was. Why were they playing the game?

" To change our world Neville.

If we play at all, we play against History, the sort that repeats its self even when it was redundant the first time.

We play against the authority not questioned. We play against the snitch.

This game, it is just a practice to win bloodless wars."

...

1 night to the match

...

"Wrong answer." The lady in the portrait replied once more. No hint of boredom yet in her voice.

" You mean to say that a game is not a bloodless war?"

The lady looked miffed at Harry's incredulity. She stopped her spree of standard reply of denial and answered " I mean to say that that is not why we play the game. Afterall there has to be a reason behind war too."

"There has to be a reason behind war? And then won't there be a reason behind that reason as well? This is nuts.

Oh, wait a minute. I get it." Harry said. " We play the game to get rid of opponents' Weapons of Mass Destruction.

That's the most sound reason anybody has ever given for a war. You have got to agree with that one."

"Wrong answer." She said again.

" That was no answer, that was sarcasm. So you were the one who was wrong here. Would you let me through now?"

Nothing happened. She didn't even bother to answer.

Harry was snapping. It has been long 30 days. He had been not sleeping properly, even Time Turner's 6 hours weren't enough for his need. And to top it all, he had just been told by the 'wise' portrait that all the answers that he had been giving others, were wrong. That what he told Draco, Patils and Neville was just plain mistaken.

"Fine. You want me to say I don't know?" Harry said in a quite voice.

"I DON'T KNOW." Harry's shout echoed in the silent corridor "HAPPY NOW?"

He was surprised at his own outburst. Was the reaction just the outcome of being tired, or was there really a doubt in his mind regarding his purpose, Harry wondered.

" I am tired." Harry said. " I didn't want to say that, but you can see me right? You can see it in me can't you?

Let me sleep.

We will continue playing this game of riddles tomorrow.

For now, could you just give me a break."

Nothing happened. There was a slight wait in Harry's eyes. Harry should have known better that approaching a problem like this. But it had been 30 long days, and he just could not see the significance of this problem right now. He also couldn't see the door opening. The very slight and very uncalled for hope in his eyes started to recede.

And then the door opened. Out if it, emerged Hermione.

" Hermione. You opened it from inside." Harry said and rushed in "Great. I was feeling like I was facing the picture of Dorian Gray here for a while."

" I thought I heard your voice. And the most infrequent words in it, something like 'I don't know'." There was a slight smile on her lips.

Harry felt uncomfortable.

"You heard my voice? You were still in common room, at this hour?"

"Yeah, waiting for Dobby. You were talking to him right? Where is he."

" Oh yeah, I let him go long ago. He should be in the kitchen. I didn't think before I asked him to go back there. Forgot that he nowadays spends his time in Ravenclaw dormitories. " Harry said.

" I will go get him. His book is with me. He wouldn't be able to read it peacefully there."

The door opened from inside again and Hermione stepped out. Harry decided to let her be. He needed to sleep. And that was the only thing he would. He wouldn't try to intervene and point out the pointlessness. He wouldn't.

" Hermione." Harry found himself calling after her. He stood at the edge of the door, so it wouldn't just close again " We have a game tomorrow. Shouldn't you be sleeping? Haven't we had this discussion earlier?

Besides, really why are you trying to help house elves? I told you before, and by now you have seen for yourself that they have been designed to be content in their current mindset. Its just plain cruelty to go against their beliefs. Why try to reform them when they haven't even asked?" Harry finally said. He had to. Though, he didn't understand why.

Hermione stood there for a while. She was smiling, or was it just Harry's imagination.

" Why am I trying to reform house elves?

Let me ask you rather, why are you trying to reform wizardkind, Harry?

They too have been designed to be content with their current state. They even manage to enjoy it.

But, you won't have any of it would you. You even want to take away their favorite snitch from their favorite game. All for their own good, of course.

The thing with you is Harry that you just see the things you find of use. Others, particularly your opponents, they don't even exist in your head. Neither wizards nor house elves.

So you go ahead and impose your will on them just because you think you are right.

Isn't that the reason why you are playing this game Harry?" Hermione said and walked away.

Harry didn't reply.

He didn't even notice when she was gone. He just could see the blank corridors, and his own numb blank mind. He could just see the door which was repeatedly trying to get shut, and got stopped each time because Harry was there, standing on the edge. He could just see something within him trying to shut too.

Finally he moved. The door shut close. Harry was facing the Portrait once again.


	14. Fosbury Flop

Game day..

" Good morning fellow Quidditch Crazies.

Welcome to the game that is already the most remarkable Quidditch game ever played, even before the opening whistle has been blown.

We have on one side the greatest team of Hogwarts. With Wood the super keeper, Weasley twins who together are the synonym of mayhem, Roger Davies with his precise aggression, Marcus Flint with his aggressive aggression, Cedric Diggory who has such a good record that some people have started suspecting that he is not a 'seeker' but a 'seer'.

Oh yeah, and Derrick too, who has gone back to his original role of Chaser for this match. Some players have contested his inclusion in this team, but well he has in a way made this match possible, and make no mistake when it comes to Quidditch he is no pushover but very much a, ahem, heavyweight.

On the other side, we have perhaps the most interesting team of Hogwarts.

Harry, Draco, Hermione, Neville, Padma, Parvati and Goyle. None of whom have ever played a match.

And yet, if that betting site that came on Floo Book would have been still active, I am willing to bet that there would have been plenty of folks here betting on the victory of the first year team. It might have been tough to even tell if they would have been the underdogs or the favorites.

For they are all what we honor the highest.

They are all the real troublemakers.

And even though I was one of those for whom the trouble was made, its not an issue since one prankster has got to appreciate the art of another.

And meanwhile, its time for the game to begin."

The whistle was blown. Both teams flew to take their positions.

And the stadium was stunned silence.

What the hell was Harry doing?

"Oh Boy!" Lee said. " It always had to be that kind of a match. One where the commentator gets speechless.

Harry has started with his weirdness already.

Right in the middle of the field, not up in the air, but almost touching the ground, he is hanging on his broom.

Upside down."

" That's right baby." Harry said to himself as even the opposition stayed for a moment to absorb this novelty. " That's where the enemy's gate is. Down, Down, Down. "

Lee continued his own commentary" The entire first year team is entirely unaffected, maybe they are so used to the craziness by now that looking at their captain hanging upside down near the ground looks entirely sensible. So they don't question why isn't their captain not flying high, seeking the snitch and generally trying to win the match.

Talking of which, its not like the team is behaving usually either. Thanks to Harry's weird tactic, Hermione's very off 'take off' went virtually unnoticed. There is no way that she is going to be flying around.

In fact, she and Goyle have gone and taken still position in the air near their own goal post.

What is going on with this team?"

...

"Their formation has two anomalies. The seeker and the beaters are being unorthodox." Six members of senior years heard the voice of Wood in their ears.

Wood was thankful to Harry, for having taken away the commentary from Lee earlier. It showed a perfect way of communicating with the players. Ventriliquo.

And he knew that in this match, against the tactics of Harry, co-ordination and quick response would be the most crucial change.

" Roger, Davies and Derrick, check Hermione and Goyle to see what they have got.

But our clear priority is Harry. We don't know what is going on with him and we can't afford surprises with snitch.

I will try to figure out his plan, meanwhile Fred and George, start with your attack on him. Have fun."

The three chasers began tussiling with the Draco and Patils. It was surprising to see them play decently. At least, it wasn't going to be a cake walk.

Davies took the first hold of quaffle and he flew fast forward.

The field was clear, there was Neville keeping at the end and before that there were Goyle and Hermione just idling lazily in the air a little distance ahead, bouncing off a bludger between them.

They had taken a bludger? When? And was it legal to shuttle it between themselves like that?

When accelerating, something happens to the brain, Davies believed. As if the thinking process accelerates too.

He knew that they will be attacking him with the bludger they seem to have kidnapped by their tactic. They must have practiced hard for this. Matching their hand speed and broom distance to ensure that bludger doesn't change direction midway.

It was sort of innovative to control a bludger like that. But all he had to do was dodge.

It was too simple.

Davies moved with grace and furious elegance. Goyle and Hermione didn't budge an inch from their spots.

Hermione pointed wand somewhere in other direction and said something.

Distraction. Davies noted. Using wand was not illegal in a match if it wasn't being used on other players. Harry must have devised some distracting tactic out of it.

Do not look there but at the bludger, Davies reminded himself.

And when the shuttling bludger reached Goyle, he this time shot it in the direction of Davies.

Good aim. Too close.

Davies swerved. He was used to such attacks.

The bludger travelled harmlessly behind him.

And then..

...

Weasleys hunted down a bludger in no time, just as the bludger was trying to hunt them down.

And their first strike began.

" Bad choice Harry" George said.

" Being so steady. " Fred said.

" And so near the ground." George completed and hit a bludger towards him.

The bludger traveled with murderous speed towards Harry. George hadn't held anything back.

Harry kept watching them from his upside down position near the ground.

Entire Hogwarts in the ground was watching to see who would draw the first blood. And if Harry didn't move soon, he would be the first blood.

Harry did move, his hand. And he snapped his fingers.

...

Davies was rushing towards the goal post as only bludgerless beaters remained in his way. No more obstacles.

And then.. something hit him hard. The bright blue sky in front of him suddenly discovered night. Everything blacked out.

...

There was a collective gasp in the stadiums.

" Unbelievable." Lee was shouting without raising his voice " What did we just see? What on earth was that?

George shot the bludger towards Harry. And the bludger stopped midway. And then turned back.

It turned back on its own. As if it was scared of Harry or something.

Just what kind of magic is going on here?"


	15. The Bludger Defence

Draco grabbed the quaffle from Roger who had had his wits knocked out from an invisible bludger attack.

Padma and Parvati encircled Draco and a three way attack ensued.

" Lumos maxima. That's the spell that Hermione had casted. " Wood was telling to his teammates through Verntriloquo. " Goyle had hit the bludger so that it exactly stopped at that illuminated spot produced by the spell. And then was the time when the bludger turned.

This is bad news.

It appears that this team has figured out how the apparently random moves of a bludger really work.

That's why Hermione was able to use that curve. She is giving the directions to Goyle by Lumos Maxima spell, and Goyle is providing the power and accuracy to the bludger.

That's why Harry had perhaps positioned himself so that bludger won't get to him. Too much distance perhaps, or something similar. I am working it out.

You got that Weasleys? What's your plan there?" Wood asked.

" Don't worry about us. We have got this. Check the trio that is coming towards you."

"That" Wood said " is no problem"

A throw by Parvati was easily blocked by Wood as if he saw it coming even before it was thrown.

"I think" Parvati said to Draco as they chased the quaffle once again " Wood is perhaps a better keeper than even Dobby"

Draco sighed. It was clear that handling Wood would be tough. Other than that, talking with a SPHEW member about Dobby wasn't the most pleasant experience.

Far away, Fred and George were busy with their own problem. Harry.

"Fred" George said.

" Yeah?"

" Wood said that distance was the problem. Say what, shall we show the first years how shuffling is really done?"

" Why not. They have earned it. "

Fred shot the bludger towards George. He hit it with an increased force towards Fred.

They both descended, repeating this motion and closing down the gap. Each shot of bludger becoming heavier.

" We told you Harry. This will be an all out war."

" You won't be able to snap your fingers out of this one. "

The thumping sound from the bludger and bats intensified and echoed in the ground. Spectators could have sworn that the sound was in synch with their heartbeats.

No body was watching the chasers or the senior seeker's search anymore. There was only one battle that mattered right now.

" The twins are coming down from the sky, shuttling all the time. They are coming down in shape of a beautiful Y." Lee said. " And Harry hasn't moved at all. Still upside down. Could it be that it is not possible to quickly move in that position. Or is it that he has another plan.

If he does then here is the news flash, Weasleys don't care. "

Fred was now close enough to see Harry. He grinned at him. Harry grinned back an upside down smile that seemed more suitable to him than anything else.

Greetings were over.

And then at the few meters above the ground, Fred hit the bludger at the full speed towards Harry. Point blank blast.

" 1-D defense is easier than 3-D defense, you know? When am near the ground, I just have to move left or right to avoid. " Harry said while moving to his side.

The bludger just missed him. Since Harry was very near the ground, the force of the bludger made it have a heavy crash with the ground.

And then the bludger started to return.

Harry suddenly flew backwards further towards the ground and bludger.

" Harry is flying backwards even lower to the ground." Lee said " What is he thinking? If he touches the ground, he will be disqualified. And then there is the returning bludger.

Watch out."

With a swift flight, Harry's back crashed with the bludger. Everybody looking involuntarily shut their eyes imagining the pain.

" Cushioning charm of a broom's seat." Harry smiled at the twins and said " It could work as a shock absorber while one is upside down.

And thus I could do this."

Those who had closed their eyes slowly opened them, as they couldn't suppress their curiosity further.

Lee's voice was stunned but not silent.

" Unbelievable." Lee said " Harry flew backwards when the bludger hit the ground. And now he has trapped the bludger between himself and the ground.

He is still airborne, so that's not violating the rules.

But the bludger is gone. Kidnapped by Harry.

And with the other bludger still being shuttled by Doyle and Hermione there are no more bludgers in the game.

The twins are hovering in the air aimlessly. There is nothing they can do.

Harry has just taken the Weasley brothers out of the game."


	16. Weasleys' War

George and Fred hovered in the air with no bludger.

" .. Harry has just taken Weasley brothers out of the game." Lee had said a moment before. There was an utter silence in the stadium.

Up above somewhere, chasers were fighting it out amongst themselves and a lone seeker was waiting to end the game.

And to nobody that seemed to matter right now.

" Come on Weasleys." Lee suddenly broke the silence.

" What the hell you are doing. Get moving. Do something that none of us are expecting. Where is the mayhem? You won't let such a small things stop you now would you?

We are all waiting.

Come on Weasleys." A breathless Lee said in one go.

The stadium suddenly felt as if it had found its voice and it went boom. There was no slow chant, there was just open outrage. A war cry from everyone. Even the first years couldn't see their ideals in this helpless situation.

Weasleys. Weasleys. Weasleys.

Everyone was shouting their lungs out. A frenzy had caught Hogwarts.

" Sheesh." George said while looking around.

" Looks like we won't be getting our five minutes to think" Fred smiled.

" Fine, then let's go ahead with what we have." George said.

They were both silent for a moment.

" Hover' Fred said to his broom.

And then he left the grip on it. Slowly, with a perfect balance he stood up on the broom.

Weasleys. Weasleys. Weasleys. The crowd went. They expected something totally unprecedented and that's what they were getting.

"If mom sees this, then we would both be so dead." Fred said, now completely standing on his broom.

" She will hear it for sure. We can't help it. This will be a legend." George smiled.

Fred looked at him as he drew his broom closer. And then with an easy grace, he jumped.

The shout of Weasleys stopped. People had to take time out to gasp.

Fred remained in the air for a moment, no broom under him, only an inevitable fall. And then he landed on George's broom. The broom sank in the air, as its weight doubled.

That one broom now contained both the Weasleys, while another hovered in the air as it was commanded. Fred looked up at his broom and said " Down "

The broom started to come down in a slow motion.

Harry couldn't help but smile. A smile of sincere admiration, and joy. Weasleys were truly worthy opponents.

"Stop." Fred said. The broom was now just below Harry's back.

"Voice command to brooms." Fred said.

" After you used it to us in our last meeting, we did explore the thing in detail." George said.

"It was great fun. Here is our thanks." Fred said and then gave the command "Rotate."

The broom moved. Center steady in air, it started to rotate. Its back end started to get closer to the bludger beneath Harry's back. It would then have been knocked it out sideways and the bludger would have been back in the game.

"Brilliant" Harry said and instantly took off.

Just before the broom's tail end could have reached the bludger and freed it, Harry launched himself, towards the sky. Still upside down, it was like he was falling not from the sky but into the sky.

" Yet, two people on a broom makes it slower." Harry said as he passed Weasley Brothers on their broom.

" We will get you." George called after him.

" But first, we will take our bludger." Fred said and looked around.

Where was the bludger?

Where did it go after getting freed?

"Why?" Lee was announcing " Why has bludger got stuck to Harry's back?"

Everybody looked up. Indeed, the bludger did seem to be stuck to Harry's back. It was moving with precisely the same speed.

" I got it." Wood understood. " I got the mystery of the bludgers."


	17. Game's changer

" The secret is in the definition 'Bludgers will randomly attack players.'" Wood was talking to others through Ventriliquo.

" But for that the bludger has to be able to sense players. I don't know the mechanism here, but by Harry's actions, I am guessing that the bludger attacks closest player, unless beaters use their bat. That's why the first time Harry was attacked, the bludger came back, because there was just one player near the ground and more players up in the air, the attraction force must have pulled it back. Only a point blank attack worked.

And that's why Hermione is getting the bludgers to turn. She just leaves it in the blindspot of one of our chasers who would be closest to the bludger, then the bludger does the rest of the work.

Right now, Harry is moving at the speed that is exactly the same as that of bludger. That is why he continues to be the closest target. That is why it seems that bludger is flying with him as if stuck to his back.

We have to change our strategy.. Oh wait.."

Wood swerved.

Too late. Draco scored the first goal.

" He may fly better." Draco said to Padma so that Wood could hear " But the thing about Dobby is, he doesn't get distracted."

Wood knew that this was strategy. He was just being messed with. He was doing good. He had just figured out a crucial strategy of opponents.

And yet it hurt when Lee announced..

" The opening hit goes to First years. They have done it. They have scored through the Super Keeper. Who would have believed it. The score is 10-0. So far first years are leading in every way.

But wait, it seems that Cedric has just spotted the snitch.

And So has Harry.

We now have the seeker contest."

The air in the stadium seemed saturated with the noise at that moment.

Lee continued "Both are flying towards snitch from the opposite directions. But Cedric is closer to snitch, just a little. First years did great, but we may soon see the game getting over."

Harry and Cedric flew in a straight line towards each other. Harry was flying at a furious pace of bludger, but Cedric was doing it too.

" I am just a little ahead of you Potter." Cedric thought, " I will take this."

In a straight line, they flew towards each other.

" Nobody is stopping. " Lee said. " If this continues then even if Cedric gets snitch first, he will crash into Potter while they are both at same incredible speed.

This is no longer a game of Quidditch folks.

This is a game of chicken.

Will Cedric loose the nerve? Will he let go of his sure shot victory to avoid the accident?

Or will Harry be the one to loose the nerve and ditch this desperate move?

Or are we really going to witness the most spectacular crash in Howgarts Quiddtich History?"

"You will move Harry." Cedric thought. "You should know that I would figure out your bluff. You won't allow the crash, not with your rationality that should already know the outcome.

I will not move Harry. Look into my eyes. "

Harry and Cedric's gazes were locked onto each other rather than the snitch between them.

They zoomed closer.

And then, just before the point of no return, Harry moved,

" I won" Cedric thought with a sudden joy and extended his hands to the snitch that was very near his grip now, his focus on his goal.

Then the upper corners of his eyes saw something coming towards him. Harry didn't move?

An ancient instinct in Cedric made him move, and he avoided the crash by half a second.

Another figure jumped at him from the corner of his eyes, he moved again.

Harry passed him by.

Harry? Then what passed him earlier?

" A bludger" Lee was once again breathless " Harry moved in a sharp sudden turn, but bludger behind him continued to travel straight. Cedric didn't even expect that and moved away at the very last moment, loosing the chance to grab the snitch.

So we thought that the game of chicken was between Harry and Cedric, but that game was finally won by the bludger .

And Harry has now gone in chase of the snitch again which disappears as he reaches there.

Nobody got the snitch this time but was it some seeker battle. Cedric flies back to the heights. Harry doesn't stop either but continues to go to get the bludger again.

I wonder why. I wonder just what next is he going to do with that bludger?"

Harry caught up with the bludger once again and it started to follow him. Though it was now at some distance and no longer did it appear to be glued to his back. People below too were beginning to understand the explanation behind the behavior of bludgers.

" There is something odd going on with this game." Cedric's voice came to Wood. They were now both using Ventriliquo to achieve a two way communication.

" You mean 30-0 score? Draco and Patils are good at deceptions and I have been getting distracted with other aspects." Wood replied.

There was a slight delay in the response of Cedric, as if this wasn't the reply he expected from Wood.

"No." He finally said " I don't mean 30-0 score. I mean about Harry. I don't know what is he trying to do.

Because just now, when he caught on to the bludger, that was odd."

" What do you mean, I just explained what he was doing with the bludger." Wood said.

" No, not that. What was really odd was that he didn't need to catch it.

He had time." Cedric said "He could have caught the snitch instead."


	18. Game's Ender Part I

" Draco. " Harry said, using Ventriliquo too. " We are going to enter phase two. No problem from Wood's side, is there?"

" Not really" Draco replied " Except that he is a legilimens."

"What?" Harry couldn't help but be surprised at this piece of info.

" Not a trained one though. Maybe Wood doesn't even know that he is a legilimens, he perhaps thinks he just has an intuition for such things.

That's why he makes such an excellent keeper."

" How did you figure he was a legilimens." Harry asked.

" Dad made me do a bit of training with some legilimens, just so I could recognize them.

I got a weird sensation when we made the first goal attempt. It didn't take me long to recall what that sensation meant. Once I knew that Wood was reading our minds and attacks, all I had to do was to apply a double blind. I tell both Padma and Parvati that the next pass is going to them and I stay at the back, either making the pass to one of them or going for the goal myself. Wood meanwhile just gets contradictory messages.

It confuses the hell out of him.

Mr. Wood doesn't even know what his problem is." Draco concluded.

"Excellent. That's some good tactic.

So time for phase B it is then." Harry said and terminated the spell.

He shot forward, the bludger still followed him from some distance. He was flying towards his own goal post .

This was particularly hard since Fred and George were without bludgers and had decided to use themselves as human bludgers, flying waywardly to provide worst obstacle. If they came too close, then Harry would have lost the bludger.

However, the one point that Harry had on his side was that he was flying in an unexpected direction.

By now, everybody knew that he could throw the bludger behind him by just swerving. They all expected him to use it again on Cedric .

They didn't expect him to throw it on his own keeper. Neville.

"This has got to be a tough day on Madam Hooch out here." Lee's voice said " Harry hasn't broken any rules as yet, but he sure seems to be trying rather hard. Is it ok to bludger your own keeper?

Is that betting site still on without my knowledge, and has Harry made a bet against his team? For that would be the only sane explanation of this behaviour.

Wait a minute.." Lee stopped in his commentary.

A small but unmistakable thump went across the stadium.

" I was just talking about inexplicable behaviour. Now would somebody tell me what on Earth is Neville doing?

Its true that the defense strategy of First years has worked so well that the quaffle has reached Neville only once till now.

But now it seems he has abandoned his keeper duties altogether.

He is.. I have no I idea what he is doing. If somebody knows, please tell me."

Nobody had the faintest idea.

Harry returned to his upside down position near the ground, but nobody was paying attention to him any longer.

They were looking at Neville who had put the bludger thrown at him through the goal hoop, and as the bludger boomranged back, he stopped it by the side of the hoop and his own broom. He then pushed the bludger by his hands, it traveled horizontally in the air and then landed with a thump on the hoop again. From the ground, it looked like the bludger was just repeatedly hitting the hoop.

Madam Hooch had to check the rules regarding that. Could a keeper really touch a bludger?

But then bludgers were meant to throw off players. If players throw them off in stead, then the rule book had nothing to say against that.

On the other hand, the other keeper was frantically trying to think things out. This was the most acute pressure Wood had ever felt.

" Cedric we need to finish this game. Don't pay attention to Neville's antics or what Harry did, just keep on looking for.." Wood suddenly stopped mid sentence.

" Fred, George. Cover Harry" He nearly shouted as he got hold of another puzzle piece.

" How? He is not even flying, just hovering upside down again." Fred asked.

" I mean cover him literally." Wood replied urgency rising in his voice " What we are seeing right now, all these things are just diverting our attention. The key to this game is still Potter.

I finally figured out why Harry is hanging upside down.

The main skill of a seeker is to seek the snitch and they usually search the various parts of the sky for that periodically by constantly moving.

Potter has just eliminated that requirement.

By being near the ground, and looking up, he could get a full view of all the sky without even moving.

The fact that sky is bright will only help him look out for snitch more easily when it shines against the clear blue background.

That's why one time he left the position, he immediately was able to locate snitch."

" Woah." Fred cut Wood in between.

" We are off." George said and the twins began a dangerously fast descent.

" Hover exactly over him. Stay as near to him as possible or it would still be possible for him to get a good view by slight movements." Wood said and cut off Ventriliquo.

In the next blink, Padma swept over him and scored a goal.

" 50-0" Lee shouted. " Super Keeper Wood has let in another goal. Just how many unprecedented events are we going to see in this game?

And as I announce this, Weasleys have again reached towards the ground. Are we going to see the third round of Weasleys vs. Harry here?"

" Hi again Harry" Fred said as he and George obstructed Harry's view.

Harry grinned.

" So you figured this out too? Most impressive." Harry said.

" What are going to do now?" George said.

" Can't wait to see?" Fred asked.

" Do you know about Dynamic visual acuity? I discovered that mine is good." Harry asked back.

" What?"

" Its.. Never mind, I shouldn't be keeping my eyes off snitch even for few seconds. So this is what's going to happen. I will be moving randomly on my plane. Let's see if you guys can keep up."

And with these words, Harry disappeared sideways.

With uncanny ease, Fred and George moved too. Harry changed his directions again, and so did they. And then again.

"Third round it is." Lee said " I Can't even tell you why on Earth are they doing this, or who is winning out here. It seems like somebody has tied them up together or something, How are they moving so randomly at this speed? Just following them seems to give me a headache.

Or is this headache because of that sound, that constant banging that Neville is doing with that hole he has got up there." Lee said and immediately checked around to see if McGonagall is approaching him angrily already.

But nobody really cared about that right now, all eyes were looking at Neville as the thumping sound finally stopped. Goyle and Hermione moved from their position for the first time since the beginning of the game. Just to be sure that they weren't in the way of the falling hoop. It had finally broken after Neville had made the bludger constantly attack it.

Madam Hooch was checking up on the rule book with an anxious look on her face.

What happens when a keeper 'defends' himself from the bludger by using the goal post, keeps on doing it and eventually breaks one of the goal posts?

Was somebody really mad enough to write that rule?

The hoop fell on the ground and bounced once to leave behind a cloud of dust that slowly rose up and dispersed. Madam Hooch still couldn't find any penalty to give to Neville. And an entire stadium was silent.

Till there was a thumping noise once again.

" One down." Neville said as he put the bludger through another hoop " Two to go."


	19. Game's Ender Part II

" Davies, Flint, Derrick" Wood shouted intructions in near panic " forget quaffle, look for snitch"

" Snitch?" Flint asked back " We can't touch the snitch, it would mean forfeiting the game."

" I am not asking to capture it. Just locate it." Wood said " And then inform Cedric of the whereabouts through Ventriliquo."

Flint hovered in his position for a while, unable to think of any problem.

" Now Move!" Wood shouted. The trio dispersed.

"Harry." Draco's voice reached Harry " It seems that senior chasers are all seekers now. You want us too to look for snitch, it seems that Weasleys are giving you hard time there."

"They are giving me tough time here." Harry said " But then I expected that from them. I have been practicing these random moves since past one month. They haven't. So in spite of their best, they are slowly loosing the edge, it is becoming easier to keep track of the snitch. In fact, 4 seekers will work further in our favour."

"Right. Now that you say it, I can see how." Draco replied " So what should we do now?"

" Isn't it obvious, with chasers gone off chase, it's a free field for you. Attack, Attack and Attack."

" Music to my ears. Over and out." Draco said and ended the spell.

Padma, Parvati and Draco flew in a circle that faced a lone figure of Wood now.

" Are you really ready for this Wood?" Draco asked " Taking a relentless attack from us, with no chasers on your side? It would be like earning limitless fouls, but even in case of a foul only one player gets to shoot. This is 3 times worse on you. Even on the best of your days you won't be able to take that."

" I won't be." Wood said " But this game is going to end any second now anyway. Are you sure your score would matter by then?"

"Let's find out." Draco said and threw the quaffle. A three way continuous attack on Wood had begun.

The score moved rapidly. And then there was that familiar sound once again.

Another dust cloud rose. Another hoop had fallen.

At the same moment, Parvati scored the 120th point. The three way undivided attacks were really becoming too much for Wood to handle.

"Wood" A voice came to him on Ventriliquo.

" Derrick? You found the snitch" Wood asked, a note of excitement coming in his voice.

" No." Derrick replied.

" Then why are you talking with me? I am already in the middle of this. Get going find the snitch." Wood said.

Draco scored the 130th point. It was almost as if the three of them were taking turns now.

"What's the use?" Derrick replied.

Wood saved the next throw from Padma. He needed to concentrate, Derrick wasn't letting him.

" What the hell you mean what is the use. Get going and search for the snitch." Wood shouted.

" We have already lost this game. Let's at least pay them back." Derrick said.

" Are you crazy Derrick? We have lost the game? Not really, but if you don't do your job, then we might." Wood said while saving another throw.

" Let's foul against them." Derrick said as if he couldn't hear wood at all.

Draco made the 140th point.

" We have got to preserve our dignity Wood. Don't you see it? That's what this whole match is about." Derrick said. " Wood? Can you hear me?"

It took him few seconds to realize that Wood had long before cut the connection. He was determined to delay further score, to give as much time to Cedric as possible for winning the game.

" Cedric." An excited voice of Davies came in.

Cedric didn't need another hint, he realised that Davies had found the snitch. He turned in the air as if a gust had blown him and instantly took off. He could see in a distance, Davies pointing in a direction.

And there it was, the Snitch.

"Padma scores the 150th point." Lee was announcing " And with the third hoop nearly gone too, it seems that Senior years' victory chance has gone away completely."

"It doesn't matter." Thought Cedric as he flew full speed towards the snitch. " A tie would be fine. I just need to get there before the next goal."

As soon as Cedric started chasing the snitch, Davies and Flint had already taken off to their own goal post to help Wood stopping the 160th point. They were now all playing for a tie.

Cedric stole a glance at the goalpost as he was flying. All the three of first year chasers took off as senior chasers approached. The goal won't be happening immediately.

Cedric would be able to catch the snitch before the 160th point. He extended his hands to catch the snitch.

And the snitch disappeared.

"Did it happen on its own?" Lee's voice was announcing " Or did sudden lights that came from Harry's wand were responsible for it.

It looked like he casted something like multiple Lumos Maxima at the same time, the lights spread in all the directions and all the team players went to those lighted spots immediately except Hermione, who presumably just couldn't fly very well. Even the attacking trio of Draco, Padma and Parvati dropped the chance of their 160th point to follow the light.

I somehow don't think that it was coincidence. But what happened just now, only Harry and his team might know. We will need to wait for the answer about how they made the snitch disappear, if they did.

And meanwhile it is here.

Neville has dismantled the third hoop. "

And for the third time the stadium watched a goal post go down.

" They have finally done it." Lee said " First years have now made it impossible for the seniors to score.

In turn it looks like all the senior chasers are now back in the game to prevent the 160th point. They aren't even trying to score now, I mean of course they aren't, their main aim apparently is to not let the first years have the quaffle.

They are still fighting for a tie. This could take time.

Wait a minute, I correct myself. It looks like this won't take time." Lee said "Look who has just joined the party."

Goyle was shooting his way through the first years, and just behind him was Neville who was making the bludger chase him as if he had it tied up from the end of his broom from some invisible cords.

And just before he reached the crowd in the air, he swerved away just like Harry had previously. The bludger shot in the air and hit Derrick who instantly flew back under the force.

A moment's confusion was created and in that moment Draco rose up in the air picking the quaffle dropped by Derrick and throwing it just from above Wood's blind spot. It passed clean.

160th point was scored.

Down below Harry stopped his zig zag moments.

It was as if some machinery suddenly stopped. No player in the stadium was moving any longer.

" Finally" Harry said " Its over."


	20. Disobedience

"Can I take over the mike?" Harry's voice said to Lee.

" Boy, you are getting good with this Ventriliquo thing.

Sure thing, take over, there are plenty of things we want explained. What the hell had you been doing this entire match? How did you make the snitch disappear, or the bludgers follow you as if charmed? And so much that I will need to make a list.

Just what magic were you using out there? " Lee asked.

Harry's voice then took over the mike

" Magic?

Oh yeah, we used a powerful spell. Rinsio.

Dobby, the house elf taught it to us. He must be here somewhere with SPHEW members right now. Thanks for it Dobby.

It's a really useful spell. Cleans up all the stains on your cloak in no time. Particulaly useful for the blood stains that our cloaks would have after all the tests we conducted on bludgers.

For we knew that the rule book said that bludger is supposed to be random. That 'If left to their own device, the bludger would attack the closest player.' Quidditch through the ages, page 22. Yeah, I even remember the page number now. Did we read that one single line infinite times or what.

Asking ourselves questions like what would happen if two players are equally close to a bludger at the same time. What about 3 then?

Gathering the data about speed of the bludger, its turning frequency etc. etc.

We didn't cast any magic on bludgers. We just understood it.

And thanks Mrs. Pomfrey for mending me and Neville every single day as we pursued our line of curiosity.

And we felt compelled to find out these possibilities by ourselves, since while its true that we were playing a game, we weren't playing somebody else's game.

We weren't doing things just because that's how people have been doing them for hundreds of years. Or had been copying for hundreds of years.

For after all, this game was all about age. About assumption that older is better. About absorption of Dragon and Sunshine in the senior year armies just because they were born a few years ago.

And if anything sums it all up, its that snitch that was never the part of this game. That became a part when a power crazy bureaucrat disrupted the game and used his influence to change it according to his whim.

And nobody questioned it.

And by nobody, I mean you.

Your objective was to over come the opponents, our objective was to overcome the assumptions.

You wanted to be better, we wanted to be good.

Good on our own terms. True to our own objective.

To not see the world with a second hand imagination. "

Harry went silent with these words. Few in the crowd were paying close attention to all the things spoken and unspoken, while most were just noticing that their beliefs were being questioned.

Harry continued, " Most of you are still looking around to see what others are thinking. But then I wasn't planning to end this with an appeal to your rationality.

As I said the objective is not to overcome the opponents, but to overcome assumptions.

Rather than asking you to play the game without snitch, I will just make it irrelevant.

And to do that, I will explain the last mystery of the game.

Do you remember the time when Cedric just missed catching the Snitch and tying the game? You didn't think my spell at that time was a coincidence did you?

The thing is, we didn't just study bludgers. We also studied the snitch.

We found that they are almost opposites of each other. While bludger senses the players and tries to hit them, the Snitch senses the players and tries to escape from them.

That's why it is usually found high up or near the ground, since most players are in the middle level. That is why it is also frequently found near the toes or ears of the players, since that is their blindspot.

So the trajectory of a snitch can be said to be near negative to that of a bludger.

After knowing that, and finding out the details, all I had to do was this..

Lumos Maximus Multiplus.

Snitchus Calculus." Harry said the spell out aloud.

Five shots of lights emerged from Harry's wand at once and went to different locations in air.

Every player in the first year team took off at once to position of the lighted spots. Only two players didn't move, Harry who was still speaking and Hermione who just preferred hovering.

" And with just five players " Harry said " We have changed the player density of the ground. The snitch will now have to find a new location to hide, and by the base of calculations, it would be there. "

Harry pointed a finger. Just above the head of Harry and other players, the snitch fluttered its wings silently. Ready to be caught in a single swoop.

Yet nobody moved to take it.

" It will move in about five to ten seconds. Want to do a count-up?

Never mind, it has moved already to second optimum location. We can move to catch it , but rather than that I will just bring it up again.

Lumos Maximus Multiplus.

Snitchus Calculus

Continuus. " Harry said . And once again the five players swiftly moved to the new positions indicated by the light spots.

" There." Harry pointed to the snitch that once again was visible. " It is now visible again there. Worse, it is now predictable. My last spell will keep telling the team where to move. And as long as others are not flying too far away, that snitch will keep coming back to the same spot.

Anybody who knows how this spell works can easily catch the snitch.

And I will be posting the details of this spell on Floo Book by tonight.

Snitch wouldn't be part of this game any longer. Not if anybody wants to play it for more than 5 seconds."

A spell bound crowd kept seeing the snitch disappear, the lights change, the players move and snitch appear again. With precision, it fluttered on that exact spot.

Everybody in the stadium understood this pretty clearly; snitch was gone. Harry could have won the game anytime, could have had the first year armies back to their dormitories and victory parties after like first 5 seconds of the game.

But he played this crazy game, just to show the possibilities of the game without snitch?

" You think you know it all, don't you?" a voice contacted Harry through Ventriliquo.

"Derrick?" Harry said as he recognized the voice.

" You want to know the difference between first years and seniors? Its simple. We are bigger.

All your arrangements mean nothing. I will just knock out players of yours one by one. The game is not over yet, it would just count as a foul. Score extra points if you want to.

For that's all you can do. You got to gloat just now because Wood wouldn't listen to reason. Wouldn't foul against you first years. I will show you how the real game would have gone. I am not afraid of you Harry." Derrick said.

Harry located Derrick, he was about as far from Harry as Harry was from ground.

" That's because you are too stupid. But I promise you, if you do something like that, I will teach you to be afraid of me." Harry's cold voice said to Derrick.

" Whom to knock off the broom first? Whom? Whom?" Derrick said without paying attention. " Oh yeah, that little red haired sphew who doesn't know how to fly." And Derrick zoomed forward at full speed "She is going down. And there is nothing you can do to save her. You can't reach me on time even with maximum speed of your broom. Isn't that right?"

"No." Harry said in a quick resolution.

His hands moved and he shifted the weight effortlessly. In a moment his broom was pointing at an angle in the sky. It was an absolutely graceful display of flight control.

And then.. he jumped down.

...

Derrick was zooming towards Hermione. She had seen him but it didn't matter. She wouldn't be able to escape with her pathetic flying skill.

Nobody would interrupt this revenge. Everybody was far off, even Harry couldn't reach him until and unless he learned how to apparate in Hogwarts grounds.

Just then, he heard a sound of puff. Somebody grabbed him and everything in front of his blacked out.

" You got to be kidding me?" Derrick shouted " Did you actually learn how to apparate within Hogwarts grounds, Harry?"

He wrestled with the hands gripping his face to remove them. It was then he realized that the hands were too thin even for a first year.

He freed his eyes from the grip and saw that he was facing a little puny house elf.

"No." that creature said in a voice that reminded Derrick of last message of Harry.

For a moment Derrick panicked. But then something within him reminded him that there was no need to panic. He was facing a house elf after all. He didn't need to use force. Just an order would do.

" Get off me house elf." Derrick ordered to the struggling house elf.

The house elf didn't move.

What was happening? How could it have refused a direct order?

" Get off me, now!" Derrick shouted, a panic rising within him.

His hand prised his eyes free from the grip a little more and he found himself looking within round eyes of deep green.

That eye gazed back at him with a chilling look. As if to an unasked question, the elf answered.

" Dobby would not let anyone harm Ms. Hermione." Dobby said.

Derrick could have sworn that Dobby's pupil got narrower and scarier with each and every word.

Then suddenly there was an impact and his broom was gone from under him and he was falling. Falling upwards.

...

Few seconds ago.

Harry was falling down after he jumped from his broom.

" Fly. Full speed." He shouted to his broom that aimed upwards towards sky, at an angle and then he shouted once more "FRED! GEORGE!"

His body continued falling towards the ground. Madam Pomfrey can't mend scattered brains, he reminded himself of that fact as he saw the ground getting closer.

And then two arms grabbed him from the sides. His descent slowed down and then he started moving upwards. Harry looked up at the Weasleys.

" And we thought" Fred said

" That our jumping on a still broom was crazy." George said with great admiration in his voice.

" Had to do it." Harry said. " A broom's maximum speed falls with more weight on it. And it increases when the weight is removed.

Derrick was right, I couldn't have reached him on time. But a broom without rider could."

" So to save Hermione from falling down to her death, you fall down to your own death?" George asked.

" No way." Harry answered " I knew you would catch me."

They all looked up to see the impact of the Harry's broom with Derrick. There were some odd movements there, and a greenish blur.

" Now stop doing this Derrick." Cedric ventriliquoed with snitch in his hand" The game is over. Its their win."

Derrick's voice came back but it didn't seem to be addressing Cedric.

" Get off me, now!" Derrick said.

And then everybody around heard another voice , one that was cold and fiery at the same time " Dobby would not let anyone harm Ms. Hermione."

"Dobby?" Harry noticed with a wonder.

Then there was the crash. Harry's broom got entangled in Derrick's cloak , lifting him higher up in the sky.

Hermione had seen Derrick coming. She was ready with her wand to hex him the moment he came in the range.

But just as she was about to fire her spell, the crash happened. She breathed a sigh of relief. Everything was safe.

And then she was knocked out of her broom.

Derrick's rider-less broom had continued to travel towards her. She should have foreseen that, she thought. She should have been able to avoid that and now she just had few seconds to kick herself mentally as the ground rushed close. Maybe Dumbledore would save her. He wouldn't just let a student fall to death, would he?

Her fall stopped.

She was hanging in air by her cloak's neck, which was being held by.. " Dobby?" Hermione shrieked with relief as she looked up at Dobby who was now flying on her just abandoned broom. The sun behind gave him a halo and completed the glorious scene.

Somewhere in the back of her thankful mind, she was making a mental note to burn her copy of 'Hogwarts: A History' that talked about how 'people' can't apparate within Hogwarts castle. So even the wisest didn't think of house elves as 'people', did they?

She was the only person with those thoughts though. The rest of Hogwarts was almost violently celebrating the end of this phenomenal game and above all they were celebrating the final image as Dobby held on to Hermione's hand and didn't let her fall.

Somewhere in the distance Draco was hearing Patil twins coo at that scene "How unlike his master" they said. And Draco couldn't help but shudder at the thought that from now onwards he was forever going to be remembered as 'The Drop Lord'.


	21. Disobedience Part II

Harry was rather relieved when the crowd focused their entire energy on throwing Dobby up and down in the air. Besides, Harry genuinely felt that Dobby deserved that celebration. Though Harry still didn't get how Dobby was able to disobey a direct order from Derrick.

" Nice game Harry" Fred and George said as they approached him.

" Thanks. No need to say, but the same goes for you too guys." Harry grinned " And yeah, one more thing. I will be posting the spell for snitch control on your Floo Book. You guys won't have any problem with that move would you?"

Two jaws dropped and four eyes opened a bit larger than they were used to.

" 'Our' Floo Book. How did you know that we.."

".. were together the 'Gutenberg of Gossip', the 'Life Eater' etc. ?

I helped Zabini hack the site to make a betting page, remember? I couldn't help but find out a few details about the originators." Harry said.

"You can't tell anybody about this." Fred said in a hush.

" We have plans for this thing. What you see now, it's just a prototype." George whispered.

" I am not telling anyone. But seriously, if only Winklevoss brothers knew that some other twins did this. Ha ha ha." Harry laughed and as the laughter died he found out that he was the only one laughing.

" I don't know why I just said that." Harry replied " Particularly because according to our timeline Winklevoss twins wouldn't even get involved in the matter for ages." Harry completed the sentence in a single breath knowing that he will hear silence once again in reply.

" And no, I don't know why I said that either. Popular theory is that this is what happens to you if you spend too much time with Dumbledore." Harry said and finally there was some empathy in twins' eyes. 'Ah, another victim of our crazy headmaster' they must have thought with some pride.

" Talking about Dumbledore, look who is coming to congratulate you." George said and looked back. Harry knew the answer without turning back.

"We are leaving. Don't you dare get any weirder while we are gone." Fred said and the twins walked off.

Harry took a deep breath. Was he prepared for the conversation with Headmaster finally? Could anybody ever be prepared to take on that madness voluntarily? Harry let his deep breath free again. He had to do this. He turned around and found himself staring up in electric blue eyes behind half moon spectacles.

" Congratulations Harry. That was an interesting game in deed. You managed to achieve your twin objectives of removing the snitch and stopping the inter year wars." Dumbledore said.

" Not really professor." Harry said. He took a second before beginning to speak again, but then it was all long planned, he couldn't stop the execution now " Stopping the Inter Year Wars was never my objective. I rather thought that it was a great idea.

Please continue with it. Let superior teams absorb the inferior teams.

And by that of course I mean disband the armies of the senior generals who were in today's game. And let us, the winnders command them.

Won't that be a better form of Inter Year Wars. Wasn't that the whole purpose?"

Harry said and waited with his fists involuntarily clenched. He knew that Dumbledore would give a reply that he perhaps won't even be able to understand , let alone counter. But he had to counter it. He had to make sure that his version of Inter Year Wars happened, for it would give him the real training, that of commanding those who were considered grown ups. All he had to do was to somehow win this argument with Dumbledore.

'OK.' Dumbledore said "Congrats once again." And he turned back to go away.

" What?" Harry couldn't suppress that question " You just agreed? You just Agreed?"

" Sure." Dumbledore turned back and smiled " After all this is just the first stage of your game. I will get plenty of time to screw with you later on."

Harry blinked. Twice. Headmaster was crazy, but since when did he start being that funky? And more importantly..

" Fist stage of my game?" Harry asked tentatively.

" You think its not obvious? Did you think, Mr. Takamura, that when you threatened to announce your predictions to a stadium full of people, I would believe that as an attempt to get leverage?" Dumbledore looked down from his height at Harry with an unflinching kindness.

Harry was getting nervous. He couldn't afford that conversation to continue. He wasn't yet ready to take on Dumbledore at such an early stage.

"But it doesn't matter." Dumbledore said, "I am in a good mood.

After all, not everyday one sees two successful revolts against the precedents.

I will leave now Harry, but let me complete the final duty of an old wizard to impart some parting gems of wisdom.

'It is our choices, Harry, that show what we truly are, far more than our abilities.'

Though I wasn't really supposed to say that until the end of your second year.

But today as we once again see the future change, who knows if there would be a second year at all. And that line seemed like an important thing to tell." After saying that Dumbledore smiled for few seconds while seeing an expression of dumbfounded-ness on Harry's face that seemed to be universal amongst audience of Dumbledore.

Harry meanwhile was trying to remember these sentences verbatim. Was Dumbledore really being crazy once again, or was he telling him something about the nature of prophecies and time travel? But then, he again reminded himself not to take the bait. There was a clear information asymmetry here and at this stage he was not yet ready to go for that conversation.

" You said" Harry found himself asking something altogether different " that there were two successful revolts against the precedents today. Which was the other one?"

Dumbledore laughed.

" Nice question to pick Harry, out of all the possibilities. Truly." He said. " Is there any other question that you haven't answered yourself today? Like how exactly a friend of yours overcame his very fundamentals of nature in order to save another friend?"

And with these words, Dumbledore finally walked away.

Harry turned towards Dobby. Indeed, how did he manage it?

Dobby had by now escaped the cheerful mob and was standing by himself.

" Dobby." Harry walked up to him.

Dobby didn't move even slightly. Harry walked a bit further and his shadow fell over Dobby. With a start, he comically jumped and looked up to Harry.

" Harry Potter Sir." He said with a delighted expression.

" Dobby, thanks a lot for saving Hermione.

But if I may ask, how did you ignore Derrick's direct orders?" Harry asked.

" Eh?" Dobby seemed confused and then his eyes brightened " Just a minute Potter sir, Dobby can't hear you right now."  
>Dobby raised his hands, and in a movement that was all too familiar to Harry, Dobby snapped his fingers.<p>

Two small bursts of smoke appeared near Dobby's ears. And an extra magically grown skin disappeared from his earholes.

Harry found that he nearly stopped breathing for a second. His skin rustled with the sensation of goosebumps.

He finally understood what Dobby had done. So simple, yet so remarkable.

He didn't just close his ears to not hear the command, he in effect found a will to try and go against his very nature to obey.

Harry was just proven wrong. But he felt that he could shout with joy. And keep on shouting.

" Sorry, Potter sir. I had magically closed my ears to not hear whatever Derrick ordered Dobby to do.

What was Potter sir saying?" Dobby asked.

I was wrong about you Dobby. Harry wanted to say. I was wrong about House elves in general. How could I have been so blind? You did overcome what I supposed to be your fundamental nature, and all by yourself.

Hermione was right about you. And I am so thankful for that Dobby.

" Mr. Potter sir?" Dobby looked a bit anxious as Harry just stood there saying nothing and looking at him.

"Nothing." Harry finally said. " I just wanted to say how thankful I am to you Dobby, for… for what you did today.

And yeah" Harry added as an afterthought " What book had you been reading this past month?"

" Missy Hermione gave that wonderful book to me." Dobby said and his tone had shifted from respect to that of pride " Life and times of Frederick Douglass."

" Frederick Douglass. But, of course." Harry said. " Thanks once again Dobby. I do owe you" And he walked away before Dobby could have started with his protests.

...

Far up in the sky Derrick was clinging on for his dear life as a broom kept on taking him higher. His attempts to turn it back had proven useless.

" Stop" Harry's voice came through Ventriliquo and finally the broom stopped.

" There is something I want to say to you Derrick" Harry's voice said.

Derrick didn't respond. He was afraid. Very afraid. He didn't want to hear anything. He would do whatever Harry asked him to do right now, if only Harry would let him down.

And then Harry's voice continued after, what seemed to be, a moment's struggle. "And what I want to say is, sorry."

Static stopped in Derrick's mind. Harry was apologizing to him?

" Don't get me wrong. I am not apologizing for what I did right now. I wouldn't have let you attack Hermione.

But that said, I did provoke you in the earlier game when I called you fat. I did humiliate you.

Whatever your actions might have been in the past, nothing then warranted that treatment.

I didn't apologize earlier because I just thought of you as a bully.

But today I surprisingly discovered my own invisible assumption that people do not change. And today I also saw it proven completely wrong.

So I apologies for that one act.

And I hope you and I will change for the better too." Harry concluded and on his next command the broom containing an inscrutable Derrick turned back.


	22. Harry's Game Part II

...

One night ago.

" You again?" The portrait asked in mild surprise as she saw Harry come back after he had finally been able to avoid the question and gain entry due to Hermione.

" Yeah. Not feeling that sleepy anymore.

That question that you were asking a minute ago, why don't you go ahead and ask it once more.

I am now in the mood to answer you." Harry said.

His voice was a mixture of cheer and violence. Words of Hermione still ringing in his ears. Any living being would have sensed a danger in his voice. But the portrait found such things irrelevant.

" Not a problem young raven. That's what I have to do after all" The portrait said

" So here is the question to grant you entry.

Why do we play games?"

...

The evening after the game..

Harry stood in front of professor Quirrell. They both looked at each other as if locked in a wandless wordless dual. Waiting for the first move. Waiting for the first counter.

" I want Wood." Harry broke the silence.

Expression of Prof. Quirell betrayed his surprise, but only for half a moment.

" You want wood? Try forbidden forest." Quirell said.

" And here I was thinking that I am the only one afflicted with a bad case of PJs. I mean Oliver Wood of course Professor. I want him for my army."

" No Weasley brothers? So you enjoyed fighting against them so much that you would rather prefer them with other armies." Quirell continued with a scorn "Tell me Harry, do you think that you did a favor to Draco and Hermione by letting them get away with weakness?

Do you think Draco or even Hermione would be able to command any of the Weasley brothers. Or that it would be their ruin to even attempt such a thing?" Professor Quirell asked.

" You really want me to believe that it was about Draco or Hermione?" Harry laughed "All this time, I was your aim Professor. You deliberately tried to disband armies of my friends but let my army stand. You knew that I would go against that decision. That I would go against you." Harry said with a clinical calm.

" Correct, but incomplete. I had believed that you would come to the explanation of that too.

I _wanted_ you to go against me." Quirell said.

For the first time in the conversation, there was a slight smile on his lips. " You see Harry, you have a major weakness.

For all that you are, you are still a kid.

You have grown up a lot in less than a year. But you are a kid. So I am making you grow even more.

The way to grow old is not to add up years, it's to subtract dependence.

Before you came to Hogwarts, you still had your intelligence, still had your dark persona. But if I am not wrong, and of course I am not, you had no influence whatsoever in the muggle world.

You were just a too-smart-for-his-own-good 10 year old boy. Weren't you?

What changed when you came to Hogwarts? Magic?

Not really.

Much more important was the fact that your financial dependence was removed. Not having to ask your parents about anything removed one dependency.

Being famous removed your dependency of 'reach'. Whatever you do now gets talked about. If you manage to remove a snitch from a Hogwarts game, there is a good chance that within a short period the snitch would be removed from the game itself.

If anybody else would have done this, the information might have never reached beyond a local Floo Book network. But you don't have to worry about that. You don't depend on other people's notice. You already have it.

That's what made you grow up. The subtraction of all these dependencies.

And yet, you are still just a child.

You felt that you have grown up a little when you broke somebody from a prison. Yet you won't dare to stage an act where you defeat a false You-Know-Who. You in fact would rather stay in this prison that Dumbledore has put you in.

You don't even dare to question him properly. You find out that Lucious has been sending you correspondence that are seized by Dumbledore and you do what about it? Absolutely nothing.

No, wait.

You don't just do nothing, you actually help Dumbledore in keeping you in dark. You tell him about your conversation with Lucious, without having figured out its meaning yourself, or even trying to.

And after all that you still wonder why you ever agreed to break in Azkaban prison just because I asked you to?

You may be a rationalist Harry, but as I said, you are still a child. Seeking whom to be dependent on. Trying to look good in front of your elders." Quirell finished.

Harry steadied his breathing. Listening to Professor Quirell often made him feel like he was back in that classroom where he was being pushed by Derrick and other fifth years. Asking them to stop. Begging them to stop. Almost.

...

One night ago..

" Why do we play games?" The portrait asked the question again.

" We don't. We never play games.

Its always for real." Harry replied.

" Correct reply." Portrait finally said and the door swung open.

She enjoyed these moments. For the simple reason that whenever somebody answered her, her portrait moved and the scene that she saw changed. It almost felt like having a body. Appropriate, she generally told other portraits, that's what an answer should do- make your point of view change.

And then as the fixed time elapsed, her portrait swung shut again. Back to the old scene that showed the same empty gallery and the same child standing patiently.

She did a double take. Not very gracious, she knew, but she couldn't help.

" You?" She asked, her surprise audible " Why didn't you go in? You already have answered."

" I want to find the correct answer, not to answer you correctly." Harry patiently replied, something in his voice saying that he had all the time in the world. And if he didn't, he would fight the world for it, till the time when he had all the time in the world.

"What do you mea.." Lady began to ask, but before she could have completed the question, the door swung open again.

When she came back, the question wasn't on her lips, but in her eyes. And then there was also fear. The fear of having seen something that should have never happened. The fear of impending insanity.

" Why did my portrait move on its own?" She finally managed to ask.

" See." Harry told her in an informative tone that was brutal in its politeness "Now you actually want to know. That is what we call a real question."

...

The eve after the game..

You may be a rationalist Harry, but as I said, you are still a child. Seeking whom to be dependent on. Trying to look good in front of your elders." Quirell finished.

Harry steadied his breathing. Listening to Professor Quirell often made him feel like he was back in that classroom where he was being pushed by Derrick and other fifth years. Asking them to stop. Begging them to stop. Almost.

But not today. Not after all his preparation.

" So making me attack you is your brand of kindness, Professor?" Harry said back.

" I am making you attack authority, Harry. I am making you attack those on whom you are most dependent. Those you love most, and those who you therefore fear the most. As long as you are ready to defy Dumbledore, I don't mind you defying me.

And you did defy me well. You not only reversed the meaning of Inter year wars, but you also ended the relevance of Snitch for any Hogwarts game.

It was a nice blow, making sure that I won't fulfill the promise that I made to you. You made sure that I won't be able to keep my word. One might argue, that I provoked you in the first place so in fact it was I in fact who was responsible for snitch's removal but why quibble. Let me just congratulate you." Quirell said.

Harry said nothing. He knew that Quirell wasn't finished.

" But what was really impressive Harry, was how you defied Dumbledore.

Using Bulstrode and Zabini to know the detailed results of the match. And then in front of Dumbledore you threatened to tell the players what their score was going to be. You threatened to tell the future to the participants of that future." The smile in Quirell's eyes kept on growing.

" Dumbledore must have nearly had a heart attack.

He is a lover of prophecies after all. And there you were, simulating a prophesy through time turner.

You threatened Dumbledore to check out what happens when people are told about the future that involves them. The McBeth scenario and other possibilities.

In reality, the whole experiment, it was just a way of recreating your first encounter with You Know Who, wasn't it? For of course you know that You Know Who targeted you because he believed in some prophesy.

You were openly and finally saying that you were ready to question Dumbledore's judgments on the matter. Cross checking his story on prophecy. Cross checking the decisions that he made in that situation. Seeing if somehow, Dumbledore could have done things better. If your parents being dead was due to Dumbledore's foolishness.

You did all that and people thought you were just making an exceptional commentary. Perhaps only 3 people in the entire castle understood what you were doing.

And only those three people would get how badly did you hurt Dumbledore, Harry.

I am proud of you. That was one really good game." Quirell concluded.

...

One night ago…

When her portrait came back to her position, the question wasn't on her lips, but in her eyes. And then there was also fear. The fear of having seen something that should have never happened. The fear of impending insanity.

" Why did my portrait move on its own?" She finally managed to ask.

" See." Harry told her in an informative tone that was brutal in its politeness "Now you actually want to know. That is what we call a real question."

The lady in the portrait continued staring at Harry with puzzled eyes.

" A real question, as in one where an answer is really possible. Where there is a reality attached to the answer. So that all one has to do to see if the answer is correct is to check the facts.

Generally you just decide to be 'wise', to be above facts.

Just now I said 'We never play games. Its always for real.' And you said its right.

Was there a moral supposed to be involved in there somewhere?

I could have just as well as given the opposite answer and said 'We always play games. There is no such thing as real' and depending upon the wisdom that was in fashion during your century, you could have declared that to be true as well.

An answer that seems to explain everything and can never be proven wrong is not what we call wisdom. We call it bullshit.

Update yourself would you. Read Karl Popper, maybe. But don't you dare waste my time anymore with stupid questions.

And as far as your previous question is concerned, the portrait didn't open on its own, you asked me a question 'Why didn't you go in?', even if it was not a riddle, you did ask it and I did answer correctly. You must have realized that at some level so the magic that binds you made you open the door.

And by the way, since I have also answered your latest question, namely ' Why did my portrait move on its own?', so you will have to open once again. " Harry finished.

As the door swung open once again, the lady in the portrait found her point of view changing . This time for real.

Then she heard the voice of Harry moving.

" Now I will go inside, rest my sleepy bum that was just kicked around by Hermione, and since you did get me thinking, will also really try to figure out what my game is all about and why am I playing it."

The voice receded. The door got shut. And Harry had finally gone.

...

An evening after the game..

Quirell and Harry were still in their conversation.

"..

And only those three people would get how badly you hurt Dumbledore, Harry.

I am proud of you. This is one good game." Quirell concluded.

" I politely disagree." Harry replied.

" You don't think it was a good game?" Quirell asked.

" I don't think it was a game." Harry answered " You wanted me to defy you, Lucious, Dumbledore etc.

I may have done that, but that's not what I was or am doing."

Quirell eyed Harry like a Jigsaw puzzle that had mutated and grown an extra piece " So what are you doing?" He asked.

" I am eliminating snitches.

Or in other words, am eliminating boring, meaningless conflicts. Conflicts like between us and You-Know-Who for example." Harry answered.

" You think conflict with You-Know-Who is meaningless?" Quirell asked, a hint of his uncontrolled rage entering in his voice.

" Of course its meaningless." Harry replied with an air of amused obviousness. " He is just the latest dark lord in the line, nothing else. First there was Grindlewald, then there was You-Know-Who, we don't know who would be next, may be we will have You-Know-Who again or just plain simple 'You', Professor.

This will keep on happening.

People will keep fighting this stupid battle over who gets to control the wizarding world. And meanwhile, in its isolation, the wizarding world just stands stagnated.

Have you paid attention to the agenda of these dark lords? Pure-blood thing mostly. Many people, common population, believe that thing still. It is to their advantage to believe that. While we are planning all the things against the dark lords, what are we doing about that fundamental problem called bigotry?

Till that exists, anybody can just come over and declare himself to be the next Messiah, the next great Dark Lord.

For you know, muggle world has been there.

We had a World War I, and then there was this big World War II. Everybody kept on looking for villains there.

In first world war, we decided that the villain was Germany. We made up a treaty, 'Treaty of Versailles' that was not meant to maintain peace, but meant to punish Germany, which we of course declared to be absolute evil.

We didn't address the basic problems though. Namely, the inequality of resources and unfair access to them. Britain continued to be a colonial superpower and newly developed nations kept trying to get share of the pie.

World war simply had to happen.

But no, we didn't try to end colonialism after World War I, we just chose to make a villain out of Germany.

Then came the Muggle Dark Lord , Mr. Hitler, and of course he was one terribly flawed human being.

Yet, Treaty of Versailles and colonialism before that had ensured that there had to be a second world war.

Hitler was the symptom and never the problem. Just defeating Hitler and doing nothing else would have made sure that there would have been a third world war.

But then, somebody did see the actual problem rather than just the symptom. Somebody called John Maynard Keynes.

Rather than punishing Germany more severely than last time, or trying to convert it into a pastoral state, as was then suggested, he instead suggested to go for equality. Showed how it would be better.

'A peace without a victor' he called it.

With fair, or fair enough post war treaties, that resulted after that, we didn't see an immediate third world war.

While the nations were busy trying to fight Hitler's army, Keynes went ahead and improved the system. Making sure that there was not another immediate 'Dark Lord' in the picture.

And as Britain understood the economics, was made to understand the reality of economics, it did begin to free its colonies too. Or it had to, unless it wanted wrong economics to destroy it.

Economics made the world a better place. Not war.

And in most of the cases, where there is an ongoing war or a possibility of it, the reason is not a 'Dark Lord' , but bad handling of economics." Harry concluded.

" So you want to be the John Maynard Keynes of the wizarding world. And Bacon. And Newton. That is ambitious, I appreciate that, but what's the relevance?" Quirell asked.

" It's simple.

Let's stop fighting our meaningless fights with the Dark Lords. Let's stop the games for the power.

How about we improve the system rather? Make economy function properly and we eliminate multiple future Dark Lords, or at least make sure that eliminating them would be seen as a problem equivalent to improving our society first.

In short I am proposing to eliminate the widespread bigotry towards muggles by opening Magical economy to the muggle word. " Harry concluded.

There was a stunned silence, which was the first ever that Harry had seen from Professor Quirell.

" You are asking us to expose our existence to muggles?" Quirell asked with disbelief rather than anger.

" I am asking for Iron Curtain to come down, yes." Harry replied.

" You are asking for the age of Witch Hunts to begin again. And this time, they will take the aid of your beloved science." Quirell said, his voice getting colder.

" We know that even in actual witch hunts, hardly any real witch or wizard was caught.

But it does seem that even before we had the secrecy statute, we kept our magic to ourselves.

You are talking about few lost lives of witches and wizards during witch hunt, and while I admit that it was really bad and insane, I also have to point out that thousands and perhaps millions of people, muggles, die daily out of some diseases or accidents that Magic could have easily prevented. "

" The pressure of past month has gone to you Harry. You are talking dangerous nonsense.

Of course magic can do much for muggles, but why should we agree to do so. For charity?

That's just naïve Harry, men don't work for charity, or give something for nothing in return. Human experiments with socialism should have taught you that.

Muggles are useless for us, and thus there isn't going to be any realistic economy between our and their world." Quirell replied.

" But that's precisely the embedded bigotry that I was talking about. You believe muggles are useless, so does a huge section of wizard society. Even some muggle borns start to believe it after they come here.

That's the fault that we will need to expose.

Opening economy to muggles would have plenty of advantages. We have a lot to trade.

We can start with their clothing. Jeans and T-shirts are anyway a big hit in Hogwarts. And industrial revolution did begin with the textile industry, after all.

On more pragmatic issues, I talked about magical medicines earlier. There are plenty of magical medicines that could be produced better with muggle resourcefulness and their industries. Large scale ingredients production could ensure that they are produced in lesser time and greater quantity.

The magical healers can thus move from mechanical tasks like stirring the spoon seven times in clockwise direction and such stuff, to do something more research oriented. They could spend there time finding cure for more diseases, improving the quality of life, and perhaps even improving the lifespan substantially, if you get my drift. All that and we get to save millions of muggle lives through our medication, and perhaps do a thing or two to get rid of the nuclear weapons as well. If saving others' lives does not appeal to us, then certainly saving and prolonging our own lives must.

So let's drop our stupidity that Muggles' ignorance is our bliss." Harry concluded.

" You think there would be any political stability where the weak and strong coexist?" Quirell asked.

" I am saying that we can end that gap of strength." Harry said.

" It would never work." Quirell replied anger now rising from him.

" So what would? Your plans to create a fascist government?" Harry teased.

" You naïve muggle raised Fool." Quirell said and no longer able to contain himself he finally shouted. "You do not know the stakes of your game!"

" And you do not know the mistakes of your game." Harry replied back with an equal rage.

They both stared at each other with pure anger for a moment.

Harry was the first to recede.

" I don't mean to antagonize you." Harry said " In fact, I would like to work with you on this plan. It is something so huge that it will take the very best of all that we have, and even then it may not be done in our life time. The goal of creating an integrated, scientific and equal society of Wizards and Muggles.

The plus side is that if you agree, then you can shift your plans from controlling the power in the wizarding world, to controlling the power in the entire world.

Bigger the stage is, better the stage is. Don't you think?"

Quirell's eyes had changed from displaying anger when the sentence began to complete inscrutability as Harry finished his offer.

After a while he finally said " You want to reach a settlement? Fine. " Harry's heart jumped a little to hear these words. It settled cozily and smugly in its place though when Harry heard next words of Quirell "You came here for Wood didn't you? I grant you the permission. Wood would now fight for the Chaos.

And that finishes our business.

You can leave my office now, Potter."


	23. Epilogue

As Harry walked away from Quirell's office, he knew that Quirell would be considering the offer. After all, it was really 'An offer he can't refuse'.

But acceptance or refusal, whatever definitive reply Harry got in the future, it would tell him the true nature of his professor.

His first phase of the game was now finished. And it was a complete success.

Yet something was missing.

" Hermione" Harry said as he bumped in her while absent-mindedly walking. As he saw her, he finally understood.

" I was looking for you.

I didn't even realize it, but now that I have found you, I know that I was looking for you." Harry said.

" Harry, what are you saying?" Hermione asked.

" Remember last night, when you said that I was trying to change the world just to impose what I thought was right? I wanted to say that it wasn't like that. I do accept my mistakes. I saw Dobby transform himself today through his thoughts and that is the biggest correction of a belief I have had since I saw Prof. McGonagall turning into a cat. So I do admit my mistakes, and I .." Harry continued breathlessly and then stopped, not knowing how to explain that he was a good person. That he wasn't running after power. That he wasn't doing things 'just because he could', but because he genuinely cared.

But in that particular instance, he so deeply wanted Hermione to believe in him, that he found that he couldn't say these things. As if he was afraid of them being rejected.

" Harry" Hermione said " I heard from Dobby that you made an apology to Derrick for provoking him."  
>" Dobby heard me?" Harry said.<p>

" He had removed the magical ear wax by then. And house elves do hear better, I guess the makers designed them magically that way so that they didn't have to shout orders." Hermione said " Anyway, I wanted to say that what you did was a thoughtful and correct thing to do Harry.

And that's what is so good about you. That is why even though I was angry on you, I still never backed away from your plan of fighting the snitches of our systems.

You may be wrong, in fact, you very often are. But if there is one redeeming feature in you Harry, it has got to be your constant effort to be less wrong." Hermione said.

Harry felt something ease in him to hear no accusation from Hermione, at least for then.

Harry smiled.

Hermione smiled back at him. And they walked away to the Ravenclaw dormitory.

And finally Harry didn't feel anything lacked in that moment. Finally, he felt happy.


End file.
